Valentine M. Moghadam says ‘[t]he rise of Islamist movements in the Middle East has reinforced stereotypes about the region, in particular the idea that Islam is ubiquitous in the culture and politics of the region, that tradition is tenacious, that the clergy have the highest authority, and that women’s status is everywhere low,” when taking about the limitations scholars put on themselves when looking at the Middle East, but she extrapolates this sentiment later to encompass Middle East and North African states (MENA), as these states have large Muslim majority populations (Moghadam 2003). A large part of Moghadam’s argument is based around the fact that scholarship, especially Western scholarship, largely generalizes these MENA Muslim majority
…show more content…
It is considered to practice “Moderate Islam” with a secular democratic constitution, but that same constitution says that all Malays are Muslims (Nagata 1994), yet six million Malays are not Muslim (Miller 2009). Its economy is considered one of the most competitive in the world, ahead of Australia and South Korea (WEF 2016) and it has the 35th largest GDP in the world (Report… 2016), yet the United Nations still considers Malaysia “developing.” It still has “laws that endorse men’s authority over women in marriage, [and] give men greater rights over property and limit women’s ability to file for divorce” (Women, U.N. 2015), yet Malaysia has also implemented quotas that have increased women’s participation in corporate boards (Women, U.N. 2015). Malaysia is a state on contradictions, but so is reality. There is more to the story and I will use Moghadam’s theory of how she analyzed MENA: “there is an interactive relationship of economic processes, political dynamics, and cultural practices” (Moghadam 2003). Two prevailing theories exist on how Islam spread to what we now know as Malaysia, assimilation by traders and Sufis, but both assume that by the 15th century, Islam became engrained in the region (van Luer 1955) (Johns 1961). Just like in other places where Islam spread, pre-Islamic traditions did not die off. The continued practice of both the matrilineal-based Adat Perpateh and the patrilineal-based Adat Temenggong by the …show more content…
Besides, adat and other forms of pre-Islamic rituals, many of which have been considered as non-Islamic, still persist, such as magic, superstition, spirit worship, taboos, consultation of shamans (variously called, pawang, dukun and/or bomoh), and belief in jin and iblis (supernatural beings) permeates the life of many Malays, particularly in the villages (Endicott 1970). However,
It is considered to practice “Moderate Islam” with a secular democratic constitution, but that same constitution says that all Malays are Muslims (Nagata 1994), yet six million Malays are not Muslim (Miller 2009). Its economy is considered one of the most competitive in the world, ahead of Australia and South Korea (WEF 2016) and it has the 35th largest GDP in the world (Report… 2016), yet the United Nations still considers Malaysia “developing.” It still has “laws that endorse men’s authority over women in marriage, [and] give men greater rights over property and limit women’s ability to file for divorce” (Women, U.N. 2015), yet Malaysia has also implemented quotas that have increased women’s participation in corporate boards (Women, U.N. 2015). Malaysia is a state on contradictions, but so is reality. There is more to the story and I will use Moghadam’s theory of how she analyzed MENA: “there is an interactive relationship of economic processes, political dynamics, and cultural practices” (Moghadam 2003). Two prevailing theories exist on how Islam spread to what we now know as Malaysia, assimilation by traders and Sufis, but both assume that by the 15th century, Islam became engrained in the region (van Luer 1955) (Johns 1961). Just like in other places where Islam spread, pre-Islamic traditions did not die off. The continued practice of both the matrilineal-based Adat Perpateh and the patrilineal-based Adat Temenggong by the …show more content…
Besides, adat and other forms of pre-Islamic rituals, many of which have been considered as non-Islamic, still persist, such as magic, superstition, spirit worship, taboos, consultation of shamans (variously called, pawang, dukun and/or bomoh), and belief in jin and iblis (supernatural beings) permeates the life of many Malays, particularly in the villages (Endicott 1970). However,