Sylva Frisk, Submitting to God: women and Islamin urban MalaysiaSeattle: University of Washington Press. 2009. Xviii,216 pp. ISBN 978-0-295-98925-9

David Banks

Published online: 1 September 2010# Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010

Keywords Gender . Malay culture . Feminism . Ibadat . Foucault . Power

Sylva Frisk’s Submitting to God is an important contribution to the understanding ofgrassroots women’s Islamic activities in Malaysia. The research was conducted overa year, beginning in 1995, and consisted of visits to religious studies centers inmosques and other venues in the Kuala Lumpur area. Frisk also visited homes andworkplaces of those attending the study sessions so that she could better assess theirreasons for participating and the goals they hoped to achieve. The text consists ofthree sections, one on Islamization in Malaysia (Chapters 1 and 2), one on themeetings themselves and the concerns addressed (Chapters 3 thru 6) and aconclusion entitled Feminism, anthropology and agency.

The first section discusses the development of Malay rights under the Britishcolonial administration, the growth of ethnic party politics in the period sinceindependence, continuing perceptions that Malays are being left behind and thatnational politics whether, the Malaysia Plans or the New Economic Policy (NEP)after the racial riots of 1969, have not been sufficient to enhance the lower economicstanding of Malays in the global marketplace (pp. 22–25). She also discusses multi-ethnic goals of the Barisan Nasional parties (Vision 2020) and the vibrantmultiethnic opposition, the Barisan Alternatif. From these considerations that strayfar beyond the research period, like Ahmad Badawi’s Islam Hadhari (2004), shepresents a summary analysis of the development of religious leadership and thinkingin the late colonial and post-colonial eras as building blocks of Malay nationalism (p.27). She then discusses the growth of the dakwah or missionary movements sinceindependence, drawing upon the seminal contributions of Judith Nagata (1984, The

Cont Islam (2012) 6:111–114DOI 10.1007/s11562-010-0139-2

D. Banks (*)Department of Anthropology, State University of New York at Buffalo, Spaulding Bldg 4, Room 378,380 MFAC-Ellicott Complex, Buffalo, NY 14261-0026, USAe-mail: dbanks@buffalo.edu

Reflowering of Malaysian Islam: modern religious radicals and their roots,Vancouver), Chandra Muzaffar (1987, Islamic resurgence in Malaysia, PetalingJaya) and Zainah Anwar (1987, Islamic revivalism in Malaysia; Dakwah among thestudents, Petaling Jaya, Pelanduk). She discusses ABIM (Malay Muslim YouthLeague), Darul Arqam (advocates of a Shariah state), PERKIM (the governmentwelfare agency that helps people enter the faith) and Jemaah Tabligh (task orientedgroupings expressing the moral ideals of Islam) (pp. 51–60). Unfortunately, she doesnot discuss elementary school and middle school texts, a springboard for so manyadult religious interests. These texts also contain detailed scholarly treatments of theideas and values of Qur’an passages, together with recitation rules.

Frisk does not make clear how political developments at the top filter down to herinterview subjects, but instead builds an inferential case for covert and incipientgender conflict that these developments imply, particularly the Islamic resurgence.She could have made a far more convincing case for gender conflict and feministempathy if she had used local interpretations of sections of the Qur’an, such as al-Nisa’ (4:34) concerning proper male behavior if a union must dissolve. This passageand its translations have been used to justify spousal abuse. She views local binaryconceptions of akal (rationality) versus nafsu (passion) as implying incipient conflictrather than as vague descriptions of behavior and attitudes. Evil nafsu is condemnedin Arabic recitations of the sermons of the Prophet read at Jumaat service. Frisk alsouses Michel Foucault’s Discipline and punish: the birth of the prison (1977, NewYork) and The History of sexuality, Vol. 2: the use of pleasure (1985, New York) toconclude that pursuit of freedom and power can be identical (pp. 9–10) and quotesgenerously from Aihwa Ong and Michael Peletz, well-known top down critics ofMalaysian society’s Islamic institutions. In their view, the dakwah movement was anattempt to create a more gender-stratified society (p. 55). She also neglects tomention that Foucault was moving far away from the position that power bynecessity creates or imposes knowledge. This later side of Foucault receivestreatment in Eric Paras’ Foucault 2.0, beyond power and knowledge (2006, NewYork). While teaching here in Buffalo in the 1970s, Foucault talked about movingaway from the books that he wrote ‘about wickedness.’ He wished to return to thephilosophical classics and consider the need to search within for the possibilities ofgood deeds, efforts and works (personal communication). His treatments offeminism consequently changed toward the end of his life (see Jana Sawicki’sarticle, ‘Foucault and feminism: a critical appraisal’ in Michael Kelly, ed. Critiqueand power, recasting the Foucault/Habermas debate (1994, Cambridge, MA, 349). Iwill return to Foucault below. Frisk’s informants’ denials that they are challengingmale authority are even more problematic for her feminism (p. 14). Their recourse toprayer and Islamic education seems more directed toward developing spiritualresources and powers than political agency.

Chapter 3 addresses the moral concerns that the meetings vetted: excessive statusdisplays through clothing (p. 71), attending Quran recitation classes (p.72–73),religious talks (77–80), decisions about leaving the workplace (pp. 87–90), wearingthe hijab and veiling (p. 90–96). There are interesting sections on women’s concernsabout the ritual purity of their hair and of their bodies during menstruation and therules of fasting for menstruating women during Ramadan (pp. 118–120). Chapter 4on ‘Religious duties and acts of worship’ gives specific information about the

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practice of prayer, the prior taking of ablutions, and other ritual acts as well as herinformants’ understandings of them. She contrasts full ritual prayers, solat, withpersonal prayers, doa, and contrasts Islamic prayer with incantations to spirits inMalay folk culture. She also presents her informants’ concerns about other cardinalbeliefs and practices: fasting (puasa or saum), charity (zakat), and pilgrimage toMecca (hajj and umrah). Chapter 5 considers contests among Malays over whichaspects of traditional Malay behavior are appropriate to mukmin (pious Muslims).This section discusses ritual feasts (kenduri) traditional Hindu influenced weddingrituals (bersanding) in which bride and groom sit in state as a royal couple instead ofthe simple public contract (akad nikah) of Islam. Each of these chapters includes lifehistories.

Frisk made two important fieldwork choices. Both affect her interviews. The firstis her choice to use English as the interview language with only some Malayinsertions, when informants thought them necessary. She says that the use of Englishin the sessions justified this (pp. 20–21). The subtle differences between Malay,English and Arabic would have come through better if she had presented herself asdesiring to learn more of the Malay ways of talking about religious topics. Thekhutbah at Jumaat prayers are given in Malay and Arabic and provide a fertileground for discussions. The informal ceramah (lectures) sometimes delivered priorto the Friday service are also delivered in Malay. Since women may lead prayerservices for women, one would like to know what language they use in thesesettings.

Her second important choice was not to take the shahada (declaration of faith)before coming or while in Malaysia. She would be able to tell readers far more aboutthe sacred spaces that she visited had she been a fuller participant. Defining Frisk asa possible convert instead was useful since it restrained the women from consideringher a malevolent social science voyeur. However, the binary opposition betweenconverts versus those born into the faith is inevitably racializing and seems out ofplace in the spiritual areas of Islam dear to the women at the meetings. One doubtswhether more than the specifics of her decision to take shahada would have comeup. Being a fuller participant in Muslim practices would have changed many of herinteractions and the data that she obtained as well as her perceptions of herinformants’ lives. Islamic practice is a strongly physical commitment includingpostures, prostrations, fasting and a relationship with a mosque of choice.Memorization of qiraat, verses of the Qur’an used in individual prayer, and thereasons for choosing particular ones would have been extremely edifying. Did theybase their choices on brevity, ease of recitation, content, beauty of rhyme, or perhapssome combination of these? Locating these qiraat would also have enriched ourunderstanding of concerns about pronunciation at the tajwid classes. The problemsof tajwid are specific and complicated. Each verse can involve elongation ofconsonant/vowel combinations and changes in the quality of the sounds themselves.The correct articulation of consonant sounds is also important. Teachers’ shortcutscan suggest local emphases. To take the shahada is a difficult decision for some butone that other social historians have made with great profit.

The book concludes with a return to the issues of contest and conflict that Friskfinds at least covertly present in these meetings. She considers these activitiesassertions of agency against male oppression. In so doing, she rejects the conception

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of gender as difference, within a framework of equality before God, in the Islam thather informants discuss. A similar conception of sexual difference to that of herinformants is found in the later Foucault discussions of self with its sexuality. Inthese discussions, freedom of the self includes pursuit of morality and humanespiritual values, not mere power (cf. 2005, The Hermeneutics of the subject: lecturesat the College De France, 1981–1982, New York, pp. 296–297).

I strongly recommend Submitting to God to readers seeking a humane approachto Islam in Malaysia, a text that is not filled with negative images and addresses realspiritual as well as other social issues. Readers have a feeling of ‘being there.’ Eventhe fast pace of city life in that area comes out and underlines the commitment ofthese women to spiritual growth and strength. Her political theme is also interestingand tempting and leads us to rethink the works of Foucault and Habermas. MyMalay women herbalists in Kuala Lumpur told me that both men and women have tobe strong in body (lahir) and in spirit (batin) and work on breaking down barrierswithin and around them.

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