Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

16CIRCLES OF POWER AND COUNTERBALANCESTHE DISCOURSE OF THE ISLAMIC STATE AND ISLAMIC LAW INMALAYSIAKamaruzzaman Bustamam-AhmadIntroductionThis chapter aims to describe the issue of Islamic stateand Islamic law in Malaysia. Many believe that theestablishment of an Islamic state and the implementationof Islamic law are the goal of Islamic movements inSoutheast Asia. The movement’s drive to establish anIslamic caliphate may have been influenced by externaland internal factors. Externally, this movement is seenas the impact of Islamic Revivalism (Kebangkitan Islam),which spread from the Middle East to Southeast Asia inthe 1970s. Internally, the issue of an Islamic caliphate isa cultural, historical, sociological and political dynamicof Muslim interpretations of Islamic teachings. Thisstudy focuses on Malaysia as an example of a Muslimcountry in Southeast Asia, regarding the debate onIslamic state and Islamic law.During my field work in Malaysia, I collected varioustypes of data as part of my research project. First, Iexamined the Malaysian Constitution from its earlybeginnings with the draft by the Reid Commission inorder to understand whether Malaysia was intended tobe defined as an ‘Islamic State.’ Second, I approachedthe issue of identity among Malays. I interviewedMalays in several states in Malaysia (Selangor, KualaLumpur, Penang, Kedah, Kuala Trengganu, Kelantanand Perak). I tried to gain an inside perspective fromgrassroots Malaysian Muslims regarding what it meansfor them to be Muslim. I received some interestinganswers from them, such as that Muslims tended tofollow the government’s rules. The Constitution hasexplained the position of Islam in Malaysia. Someof my respondents were concerned that the issue ofan Islamic state and Islamic law in Malaysia couldlead to a misunderstanding between Muslims andnon-Muslims. Non-Muslims preferred to claim thatMalaysia is a secular state in the sense that every singlereligion can play a major role in Malaysia. It is thereforeinappropriate to urge Malaysia to be established as anIslamic state. I also did an ethnographic study on oneIslamic movement in Malaysia, Jamâ‘ah Tabligh. I wentout among them (khurûj) while they preached Islamto Malays in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. In-depthinterviews were conducted among members of Jamâ‘ahTablîgh at Sri Petaling, Bandar Baru Bangi and MasjidJamek market. Besides this, I attended the regionalmeeting of Jamâ‘ah Tablîgh at the Sri Petaling mosque.The goal of this meeting was to understand and evaluatethe situation of the organization in two states, Selangorand Kuala Lumpur.I chose different groups and methods of conductingresearch in this study because I wanted to see howthe concepts of an Islamic state and Islamic lawwere interpreted by Malaysians. By doing this, Icould add some important issues that show trendsamong Malaysians who approach the issues througha substantive and formalistic approach. The legacyof Malaysia as a multiethnic country has led to theproblem of Islam as a contested and reconstructedreligion in the country. In other words, I assume thatthere is no single consensus among Malaysians aboutwhat an Islamic state and Islamic law in the countryare and how they should be established. At the sametime, the government also has its own interpretationof the process of Islamization in many aspects amongcitizens. Thus, this study seeks to investigate the currentportrait of one controversial issue as part of the processof Islamic resurgence in Southeast Asia in general.Understanding the Islamic State and Islamic LawMany Muslim scholars have explained the natureof an Islamic state. This topic is studied in Islamicpolitical science (siyâsah syar‘iyyah) as part of Islamicjurisprudence or Islamic law (fiqh al-Islâm). In Islamicsources, an Islamic state can be defined in Arabic terms,such as a daulah (state), bani (dynasty), hukûmiyyah(government), sulthân (kingdom), khilafât (state) andimâmah (leadership) (Hilmi 1998; Ahmed 1988).Nevertheless, the meaning of state in Arabic is daulah,which can be classified into three levels: a federal state(al-daulah al-ittihâdiyyah), a legal state (al-daulah alqanûniyyah)and a welfare state (al-daulah ar-rafâhiyyah)(Badawi 1993, 408).It is likely that there is no term for Islamic state in Islamicclassical sources, even in the most authoritative books(kitâbs) on Islamic political science (Siyâsah Shar’îyah)written by al-Mawardi (1966) and Abi Ya’la (1992).These books look at how to administer a governmentAsian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows