Malaysia

Islam

According to the Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals), the Sultan of Malacca converted to Islam in the beginning of the 15th century. The prophet Muhammad is said to have appeared to the ruler in a dream, taught him the profession of faith, and given him the name Muhammad. The next day, a ship arrived from Jeddah with a Sayid, descendant of the Prophet, who converted the other nobles in the court. In the 15th century, with the Malacca Sultanate dominating the sea lanes in Southeast Asia, Islam spread to coastal ports throughout the area. The Islam that Indian traders brought to Malaysia was deeply Sufi, and among the populace, more generally, Islam was combined with shamanic and animist beliefs.

In the early decades of the 20th century, an Islamic reform movement known as Kaum Muda (Youth Faction) spread from the Middle East to Malaysia. Influenced by the writings of Muhammad Abduh (1849–1905) and Rashid Rida (1865–1935), the Kaum Muda attacked Sufi ritualism and sought to modernize Islam through the establishment of religious schools (madrasas). In the 1970s, a revival movement known as dakwah arose in the aftermath of anti-Chinese race riots in 1969. It was inspired by disillusionment with secular nationalism after the defeat of Egypt and Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and by the civil rights movement in the United States. At the University of Malaya, students who were influenced by writings of the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan-al-Muslimeen) in Egypt and reformers such as Abdul Ala Maududi of Pakistan formed the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia, ABIM). ABIM began to work in the slums around Kuala Lumpur and in 1974 organized demonstrations protesting against Malay poverty. Although Anwar Ibrahim, ABIM's leader, was imprisoned for 2 years as a result of the protests, the Malaysian government began to accommodate the demands of Islamic activists. The dakwah movement was particularly strong in the states of Kelantan and Terengganu and in rural Kedah, the base of the Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party (PAS), formed in 1951 to struggle for an Islamic state. The Iranian Revolution in 1979 and government efforts to suppress PAS fortified the commitment of Islamic activists. In 1986, 14 villagers in Kedah were killed by the police when they tried to prevent the arrest of a PAS preacher.

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