“Southeast Asian Islam: A Moderate Alternative”

By Leonard Y. AndayaDepartment 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 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%)

ISLAMIC LANDS TODAY

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 WaliSongo (Nine Wali or Sufi Saints)

• Java has largest Muslim ethnic community in Indonesia (c. 100 million)• In Javanese imaginary, Wali Songosummoned 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 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

BOROBUDUR

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 wherethe ancestral spirits reside, hence melding athanksgiving celebration with Islam

Oldest mosque in Ambon National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

‘Blue Mosque in Shah Alam,Malaysia

Southeast Asian Mosque Architecture

Islamic Reading Competition

Islamic Themed Park in State ofTerengganu in Malaysia

Islamic reality television called Solehah (Pious Woman)to choose best female preacher

Telekung Malay woman with tudung

Men with sarong and songkok;; women with tudung

Burka is rarely worn by SoutheastAsian 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 or immigrants from Central Vietnam• Three types of Muslims: Chams, Malays, and Khmer• CHAMS are divided into (1) Cham Shariat (i.e. Chams who observe the Sharia in the Shafi’i tradition; (2) the Jahed or “KaumHakekat”, also known as “Kaum Jumaat” or “Cham Bani” includes more indigenous belief• MALAYS are refered to as Chvea or Jva and are divided into three groups: (1) the Jva or ChveaKrapi for those from Sumatra; (2) the Jva Melayu for those from the Malay Peninsula; and (3) Jva iyava for those from Java• KHMER constitute only a small group that had been proselytized by recent Muslim missionaries

Position of Muslims in Cambodia

• Principally fishermen and farmers, but they also are in retailing and in cattle-­‐rearing• High unemployment and socio-­‐economically disadvantaged• Muslim children attend national schools and religious schools, with revival of the madrasah and Islamic educational system after Khmer Rouge period• Under the Khmer Rouge government, some 70,000 Chams were killed and many more fled the country• New situation only occurred with the creation of UNTAC (UN Transition Authority in Cambodia) and the arrival of Muslim troops from Indonesia, Egypt, and Malaysia, which helped create contacts with Muslims abroad• Many Muslim refugees who had fled to Malaysia, US and other Western countries were persuaded to return