Islamic political movement in Malaysia

Abstract

The global revival of Islam that began in the early 1970s has been widely discussed. The resurgence of Islam has predominantly been a political phenomenon that emerged when the existing social and political agenda of established institutions and their protagonists were perceived to have failed. Although Islamic revivalism has been global in nature, with many of the issues it brought forth being transnational in character, national boundaries remain the frame of reference within which Muslim contestations occur. This paper is a study of the origins and evolution of Muslim politics in Malaysia. As a background survey, it is primarily concerned with the early coming of Islam to the Malay world and developments up to about the mid-1970s. It will conclude, taking into account Malay-Islamic politics up to the 1990s, by identifying comparable patterns and potential future trends in Malay-Islamic politics.