Negotiating Malay Identities in Singapore: The Role of Modern Islam

ISBN-13: 9781845196967 / Angielski / Twarda / 2016 / 240 str.

Rizwana Abdul Azeez

Opis

Singapore Malays subscribe to mostly traditional rather than modern interpretations of Islam. Singapore state officials, however, wish to curb the challenges such interpretations bring to the country's political, social, educational and economic domains. Thus, these officials launched a programme to socially engineer modern Muslim identities amongst Singapore Malays in 2003, which is ongoing. Negotiating Malay Identities documents a variety of ethnographic encounters that point to the power struggles surrounding two basic and very different ways of living. The academic literature on Singapore Malays is sparse: this work not only fills gaps in the existing academic literature but provides new and original research data. Its data-rich ethnographic and anthropological approach show the complexities of Malay and Muslim social contexts, and complements other works that examine Southeast Asian states' management of Islam, which has attracted much scholarship given the global interest in Islam-based politics and social organization.