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Contemporary Islamic Discourse in the Malay-Indonesian World
While many books have probed the role of Islam in political and social change in Southeast Asia over the past three decades, few have focused on the power of the religious discourse itself in shaping this transformation.
Contemporary Islamic Discourse in the Malay–Indonesian World captures the interplay between religion and social thought in comparative case studies from Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
Drawing on a critical sociology of knowledge and a profound understanding of historical contexts, the central focus is on Muslim intellectuals who have grappled with the impact of modernity in these societies, between those seeking to reform Islam’s role and those who take a hardline defensive stance.
The discussion deals successively with the role of religious traditionalism, the upsurge of dakwah revivalism and the public sphere, attitudes towards democracy and pluralism, and finally the ideas advanced by liberal Islam and its opponents. Above all, Azhar Ibrahim offers the reader a creative way of understanding the modern Islamic discourse and its relationship to the remaking of society at large.
Contemporary Islamic Discourse in the Malay–Indonesian World captures the interplay between religion and social thought in comparative case studies from Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
Drawing on a critical sociology of knowledge and a profound understanding of historical contexts, the central focus is on Muslim intellectuals who have grappled with the impact of modernity in these societies, between those seeking to reform Islam’s role and those who take a hardline defensive stance.
The discussion deals successively with the role of religious traditionalism, the upsurge of dakwah revivalism and the public sphere, attitudes towards democracy and pluralism, and finally the ideas advanced by liberal Islam and its opponents. Above all, Azhar Ibrahim offers the reader a creative way of understanding the modern Islamic discourse and its relationship to the remaking of society at large.
250 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
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32 people want to read
About the author
Azhar Ibrahim
21 books33 followersAzhar Ibrahim, PhD. is a visiting fellow at the Department of Malay Studies National University of Singapore (NUS). He obtained his PhD., MA, from the same department in 2002 and 2008 respectively. His dissertation focused on the humanism and intellectualism among Malay literary intelligentsia while his MA thesis dealt with the study of religious orientations as reflected in feudal Malay society and its continuities in the present. He majored both in Malay Studies, and Southeast Asian Studies at undergraduate level. He has been a Lecturer for almost ten years at the National Institute of Education, (NIE) Nanyang Technological University, teaching classical and modern Malay literature, sociology of the Malays, as well as Islamic intellectual traditions and civilization. At NIE he also co-teach multiculturalism and critical pedagogy. His research interest includes sociology of religion, sociology of literature and critical literacy, and the Malay-Indonesia intellectual development. Currently he is pursuing his post-doctoral research at the Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark for (2009/2010), and later at Temple University, USA (2010/2011) under the NUS Overseas Postdoctoral Fellowship. His postdoctoral research focuses on Social Theology in Muslim Southeast Asia: Trends and Challenges, and the Theology of Dialogue in Malay-Indonesian Societies: Prospects and Impediments. He has co-edited and published widely in Malaysia and Indonesia.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 9, 2019
Azhar Ibrahim unleashes his inner bibliophile in this wide-spanning and incisive take on contemporary Islamic discourse in the Malay-Indo world. Inevitably, all studies about discourses can only be representative, but in this book a firm commitment to browsing a spectacular array of local, and vernacular discourses in the Malay-Indo world can be detected.
As a result, the footnotes are a delight to read as it shows how far Ibrahim's deep trawling went. It also speaks of his unwillingness to succumb to broad generalisations; a critique he unapologetically lobbed on the Islamic traditionalists and revivalists, whose demonization of liberal Islam is as misinformed as it revels in misinformation.
Despite the title, this book is less an exploratory enterprise (although Ibrahim does make an analytical distinction between traditionalist, revivalist and liberal (reformist) Islam) than it is an intellectual riposte. Ibrahim minces no words in exposing the fallacies and myopia of the traditionalist and revivalist streams of thought; both of which diverge as much as they converge in contemporary Islamic discourse in face of the liberal boogeyman.
He speaks of the need for progressive, liberal Islam to thrive (not only intellectually but socially) and appears to exhibit (a perhaps overly optimistic) view of Indonesia's socio-intellectual space as the incubator to such thoughts. Other observers of contemporary Indonesian politics may disagree. If Indonesia is a bigger metaphorical melting pot, it's definitely a hotter and more volatile one as compared to the more conservative Malaysia/Singapore. Indonesian Islam may be diverse and cosmopolitan (in certain quarters), but it bears fruit as much as it bears harm if judging by recent development.
Ibrahim's book is the most enthralling in its lucid prose and forthright message. The book is defiant (in the context of the region's active shunning of more open discourses on religion) though hardly intellectually aloof. Ibrahim speaks to the local vernacular and epistemologies with unrepentant candour; a feature that can be checked against the many diligent translations he made. He can say it as it is because he took the effort to examine what is being said.
Ultimately, what this book proposes as the solution to the obdurate and impoverished Islamic discourse in this region will have to come from the works of the 'creative few'. The lack of intellectual maturity and confidence will ultimately have to be replenished by the intellectuals.
It is obvious Ibrahim yearns for a kind of the people's intellectual through his constant exhortation that intellectual work should be made accessible to the rural heartlands. However, one may wonder if such a barrier is ever broken in history (perhaps only by individuals that could easily codeswitch between intellectual and politician, such as Mao, Gandhi or Stalin).
This consideration, of course, is also bound by longheld views about the rural-urban gap that is supposed to mark the enlightenment barrier, although recent sociological studies lend no truth to it. There is no bucolic heartland to capture. As even developments in Western countries have shown, there is no longer a heartland in this hyper-fragmented and hyper-expressive world. Everyone is fighting to reconstitute this heartland (in diverse terms, interests, and epistemologies), as we speak.
This is not to discount the contribution of Ibrahim. He deserves every credit for giving a penetrating analysis of a historical, complex and extremely contentious discursive space. But in his calls for liberal ideas to capture the marketplace of ideas, a difficult question remains. Why is the 'marketplace' the way it is? Is discursive impoverishment merely an issue of supply-demand? Has the battle between ideas always been an arena where the 'best' idea-defined here as plurality celebrating, locally rooted, and morally defensible-wins?
As a result, the footnotes are a delight to read as it shows how far Ibrahim's deep trawling went. It also speaks of his unwillingness to succumb to broad generalisations; a critique he unapologetically lobbed on the Islamic traditionalists and revivalists, whose demonization of liberal Islam is as misinformed as it revels in misinformation.
Despite the title, this book is less an exploratory enterprise (although Ibrahim does make an analytical distinction between traditionalist, revivalist and liberal (reformist) Islam) than it is an intellectual riposte. Ibrahim minces no words in exposing the fallacies and myopia of the traditionalist and revivalist streams of thought; both of which diverge as much as they converge in contemporary Islamic discourse in face of the liberal boogeyman.
He speaks of the need for progressive, liberal Islam to thrive (not only intellectually but socially) and appears to exhibit (a perhaps overly optimistic) view of Indonesia's socio-intellectual space as the incubator to such thoughts. Other observers of contemporary Indonesian politics may disagree. If Indonesia is a bigger metaphorical melting pot, it's definitely a hotter and more volatile one as compared to the more conservative Malaysia/Singapore. Indonesian Islam may be diverse and cosmopolitan (in certain quarters), but it bears fruit as much as it bears harm if judging by recent development.
Ibrahim's book is the most enthralling in its lucid prose and forthright message. The book is defiant (in the context of the region's active shunning of more open discourses on religion) though hardly intellectually aloof. Ibrahim speaks to the local vernacular and epistemologies with unrepentant candour; a feature that can be checked against the many diligent translations he made. He can say it as it is because he took the effort to examine what is being said.
Ultimately, what this book proposes as the solution to the obdurate and impoverished Islamic discourse in this region will have to come from the works of the 'creative few'. The lack of intellectual maturity and confidence will ultimately have to be replenished by the intellectuals.
It is obvious Ibrahim yearns for a kind of the people's intellectual through his constant exhortation that intellectual work should be made accessible to the rural heartlands. However, one may wonder if such a barrier is ever broken in history (perhaps only by individuals that could easily codeswitch between intellectual and politician, such as Mao, Gandhi or Stalin).
This consideration, of course, is also bound by longheld views about the rural-urban gap that is supposed to mark the enlightenment barrier, although recent sociological studies lend no truth to it. There is no bucolic heartland to capture. As even developments in Western countries have shown, there is no longer a heartland in this hyper-fragmented and hyper-expressive world. Everyone is fighting to reconstitute this heartland (in diverse terms, interests, and epistemologies), as we speak.
This is not to discount the contribution of Ibrahim. He deserves every credit for giving a penetrating analysis of a historical, complex and extremely contentious discursive space. But in his calls for liberal ideas to capture the marketplace of ideas, a difficult question remains. Why is the 'marketplace' the way it is? Is discursive impoverishment merely an issue of supply-demand? Has the battle between ideas always been an arena where the 'best' idea-defined here as plurality celebrating, locally rooted, and morally defensible-wins?
June 1, 2017
An excellent critical review of the complex discourses in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore -- it's historically informed and grapples head-on the emergence of right-wing literalist agendas and what they portend for society and politics. Excellent.
July 11, 2016
Excellent critical breakdown on the trends of traditionalism, neofundamentalism, conservatism and progressive tendencies in the Malay-Indonesian world. It engages the theories of various scholars from diverse fields such as Theology, Sociology and various orientations of Muslim discourse in a succinct manner, and analyzes the historical developments of the trends through critical sociology. The chapters on theologising democracy and pluralism were of vital importance, but what it provided for in terms of vision, it was lacking in terms of substantial development. However, that was probably beyond the scope of this book. Rarely has a book been able to capture so much in such a succinct manner.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews