Malaysia Malay religious dilemma in a multifaith atmosphere

• Main Author: Ahmad Sabri, Ahmad Zaharuddin Sani
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. 2012
• Subjects: BL Religion
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/10502/1/AZS.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/10502/; http://ssrn.com/abstract=2131879

This paper attempts to offer a new understanding of some fundamental aspects nature of Malay and Islam identity, using Malaysia as a case study.I first sketch the history of the region and it heir to Hindu and Buddhist traditions and also to three European colonial systems of government and administration (Portuguese, Dutch and British).Second, I point out how state-led mediates essential of the peninsula “Malay” as territorial and indigenous (bumiputra) appears to have led to the inclusion and exclusion of the pre and post-colonial migrant at various moments in the process of negotiating Malay identity, making of the Malay-Muslim ethnicity.Finally, I argue and maintain that the process of “othering” in multicultural Malaysia seems triggered by “ontological insecurity “and “de-traditionalisation”, as pointed out by Anthony Giddens (1990), and the hegemonic construction of Malay identity dilemma.To understand the conflict of religions in Malaysia, one has to understand the link between religion and the state, and the pluralisticnature of Malaysian society and one must begin with data from the area rather than with some Middle Eastern and theological formulations of Islam.