Islam in an Era of Nation States: Politics and Religious Renewal in Muslim South-East Asia

Abstract

Since the late 1970s, Southeast Asia's Muslim population has experienced an unprecedented religious revival. This resurgence has created a new kind of Islamic discourse, one oriented to the needs of a broad public rather than to narrow circles of religious adepts. This text examines the history, politics and meanings of this resurgence in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. It explores the implications for Southeast Asia, the larger Muslim world, and the West. The opening chapters document relations between the state and prominent Islamic political organizations. A second group of essays brings the level of documentation and analysis one step closer to the grass roots operation of or Islamic movements. The final group shifts the description and analysis to the most basic level - the grass-roots reception of institutional discourse and the target of reformist and resurgent activity.