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Moderate Islam in Southeast Asia “Southeast Asian Islam: A Moderate Alternative” By Leonard Y. Andaya Department of History University of Hawai’i at Manoa Introduction • To understand Southeast Asian Islam, one must distinguish between situation in majority and minority Muslim countries • Principal factors contributing to moderate forms of Islam in Southeast Asia: (1) Nature of Islamization in Southeast Asia, particularly on Java and in the Malay world; and (2) Indonesian and Malaysian government initiatives in education Islam Today • 1.2 billion Muslims, with ISLAMIC LANDS TODAY total of Arabic-speaking Muslims in Middle East less than 20% of the global Muslim population • Muslims are divided into two principal denominations: Sunni (87- 90%) and Shia (10-13%) Total Muslims in Southeast Asia: c. 235 Million • Myanmar/Burma 48,137,741 (4% Muslim) • Thailand 65,998,436 (7.3%) • Laos 6,834,345 (.01%) • Cambodia/Kampuchea 14,494,293 (1.6%) • Vietnam 88,576,758 (65,000 Muslims) • Malaysia 25,715,819 (58%) • Singapore 4,657,542 (15%) • Brunei 388,190 (67%) • Indonesia 240,271,522 (90%) • Timor-Leste (East Timor) 1,131,612 (less than 1%) • Philippines 97,976,603 (5%) Nature of Islamic Expansion • After the founding of Islam by the Prophet Muhammad c. 622, Islam was spread mainly through trade but also by force • While the tenets of Islam adopted, each place made its own mark on the religion and thus the religion developed somewhat differently in each place Nature of the Islamization Process in Southeast Asia “Localization” of Islam in Southeast Asia • ‘Localization: Adapting an outside idea to an established local belief system • Islam (as with early Indian Hindu and Buddhist beliefs in Southeast Asia) was ‘localized’ to indigenous spiritual environment • Sufism (Tasawwuf), or the mystical aspects of Islam, facilitated localization because of Sufi openness to ideas of local spirits and supernatural forces • People attracted to spiritual forces that can assure protection and prosperity • Conversion stories in Southeast Asia contain many Sufi elements CONVERSION OF SAMUDERA-PASAI • Earliest evidence of a Muslim community in Southeast Asia (noted by Marco Polo in 1292) is in northeast Sumatra in Samudera-Pasai Why did the people embrace Islam? • A major reason was to gain protection and prosperity for the ‘family’, whether a nuclear family or a ‘family’, as a state • Based on Southeast Asian oral traditions, Sufi missionaries performed miracles to convince people of their superior spiritual power, hence Islam was ‘localized’ or made part of local belief system • Other attractions: Muslim trade and prestige of Islam because to be Muslim was to be associated with great Muslim Empires: Ottoman (Turkey), Safavid (Persia), and Mughal (India), height of power 16th-18th centuries The Three Great Islamic Empires: The Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Islamization of Java Islamization of Java and the Role of the Wali Songo (Nine Wali or Sufi Saints) • Java has largest Muslim ethnic community in Indonesia (c. 100 million) • In Javanese imaginary, Wali Songo summoned supernatural forces to overcome Hindu-Buddhist armies of Majapahit and thus brought Islam to Java in early 16th century • One striking element in their hagiographies is tolerance for non- Islamic beliefs, even as they strove to combat pantheistic teachings in Islam Process of Islamization of Java • Language: passages in Arabic with Arabic terminology, but certain terms were kept in the Old Javanese form: Pangeran for God; sambahyang for ritual prayer, tapa for ascetisim, swarge for heaven, and suksma for immaterial or innermost soul, which are standard today • Some practices abandoned (cremation), while others eventually accepted (circumcision, food prohibitions, Islamic ritual prayers) • Clear distinction made between what was Islamic and what Javanese, with some elements of Javanese culture seen to be acceptable • Transition continued between fourteenth and at least till eighteenth centuries Dutch Colonial Regime and Its Impact on Islam • In the late nineteenth century Dutch colonial powers in Java BOROBUDUR came to privilege the pre-Islamic past, strengthening Javanese court culture • Strong Javanese culture fostered greater tolerance for more nominal practice of Islam, less attracted to reformist Islamic practices from Middle East Javanese Challenge to Islam • Some Javanese court texts were critical of and even mocked Islam, a tendency supported by the Dutch colonial regime • Strong social ties between the Javanese aristocracy and the ordinary people who were nominally Muslim were a major factor in the failure of more radical Islamic ideas from taking root in Java • Western modernity and Islamic modernism coalesced in new progressive Islamic ideas advanced by Javanese Muslim intellectuals who had training in both Western and Islamic knowledge Islamization of the Malay World Malay Conversion Narratives • Most Malay conversion tales from 1300 to 1600 involve conversion of rulers first, then people • Structure: ruler encounters the Prophet in a dream or vision, he miraculously recites the profession of faith (shahada) in Arabic and discovers upon wakening that he is circumcised • Following day a ship arrives with a Muslim missionary, who converts the ruler; in time his people also convert • As in Java, role of Sufism noted in use of supernatural elements in conversion and in tolerance of indigenous beliefs • Localization of Islam through cross-fertilization of court (written) and village (oral) views A decorative calligraphic heading (kepala surat) positioned at the top of a Bugis royal letter. It is in the form of a ship made out of the pious Arabic phrase, Qawluh al-haqq wa-kalamuh al-sidq, ‘His Word is The Truth and His Speech Veracity’, drawn on a blank page in Ahmad al-Salih’s diary. British Library, Add. 12354, f. 118v. Malay Rulers and Tolerant Version of Islam • British colonialism on the Malay Peninsula began in 1874, and began process of dividing ‘secular’ from ‘religious’ affairs, leaving Malay rulers with only jurisdiction over religion (Islam) and adat (customary law) • Central role of kings in Islam in their individual state (former kingdoms) continued after Malayan independence proclaimed in 1957 • Growing influence of the rulers in recent times has strengthened their support of traditional Islamic authorities and therefore weakened efforts by more radical Muslims to control the Islamic discourse ILLUSTRATIONS OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN ISLAMIC PRACTICES Selamatan feast with tumpeng Tumpeng represents the sacred mountain where the ancestral spirits reside, hence melding a thanksgiving celebration with Islam Oldest mosque in Ambon National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Southeast Asian Mosque Architecture ‘Blue Mosque in Shah Alam, Malaysia Islamic Reading Competition Islamic reality television called Solehah (Pious Woman) to choose best female preacher Islamic Themed Park in State of Terengganu in Malaysia Telekung Malay woman with tudung Men with sarong and songkok; women with tudung BurKa is rarely worn by Southeast Asian women Southeast Asia: A Model for Moderate Islam? Historicizing the Debate • Islamic Reformism and Western modernity are just the latest of civilizational ideas that have undergone ‘localization’ in Southeast Asia • Localization emphasizes local Southeast Asian agency, thus countering view of ‘invasion of ideas’ (ghazwul fitri), whether from the West or the Middle East • Moderation in Islam is promoted by education in Indonesia and Malaysia ‘Religious Engineering’ • Indonesia’s Islamic education system has been described as one of the few programs of ‘religious engineering’ found anywhere in the world • Private Islamic institutions working with state educational institutions have resulted in a curriculum that combines secular courses and Islamic subjects • Since 2003 all students are required to enroll in a basic ‘civics’ course involving a study of democracy, civil society, human (including women’s) rights Malaysia’s Islamic Education System • Islam is the official religion of Malaysia, and so Islamic education in national schools has been encouraged since the 1961 Education Act • Ministry of Education controls the curriculum and (like Indonesia) combines Western secular learning with more traditional Islamic subjects • Islamic courses, Islamic departments, and Islamic institutes are also found in national universities Education as Basis for Moderate Islam • Both Malaysia and Indonesia have experimented with ideas of masyarakat madani or civil society, and both have introduced a mixture of religious and secular education as a means toward making Islam relevant to the modern world • The successful integration of Islamic and secular education with its emphasis on civil society is a model that Southeast Asians are advocating for other Muslim countries around the globe Conclusion • Southeast Asian Islam must be understood in the culture of the majority and minority situation • Nature of Islamization in the two main majority Islamic countries dominated by the Javanese and Malay ethnic communities promoted tolerance and accommodation of Islam to indigenous beliefs • Pro-active Indonesian and Malaysian government education initiatives and (in Indonesia) role of the Islamic educational institutions are bearers and proselytizers of moderate Islam Brief Overview of Islam in Cambodia Islam in Cambodia • Buddhism is the official religion but freedom of religion is guaranteed • Muslims in Cambodia are 4 to 5 % (c. 650,000) of a population of 13.5 million, and are mainly descendants of Cham refugees
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