Negotiating Malay Identities in Singapore The Role of Modern Islam |
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Author:
| Azeez, Rizwana Abdul |
Series title: | Sussex Library of Asian and Asian American Studies |
ISBN: | 978-1-84519-696-7 |
Publication Date: | Mar 2016 |
Publisher: | Liverpool University Press
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Book Format: | Hardback |
List Price: | USD $150.00 |
Book Description:
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Singapore Malays subscribe to mostly traditional rather than modern interpretations of Islam. Singapore state officials, however, wish to curb the challenges such interpretations bring to the country's political, social, educational and economic domains. Thus, these officials launched a programme to socially engineer modern Muslim identities amongst Singapore Malays in 2003, which is ongoing. Negotiating Muslim Identities documents a variety of ethnographic encounters that point to the...
More DescriptionSingapore Malays subscribe to mostly traditional rather than modern interpretations of Islam. Singapore state officials, however, wish to curb the challenges such interpretations bring to the country's political, social, educational and economic domains. Thus, these officials launched a programme to socially engineer modern Muslim identities amongst Singapore Malays in 2003, which is ongoing. Negotiating Muslim Identities documents a variety of ethnographic encounters that point to the power struggles surrounding two basic and very different ways of living. While the Singapore state has gained some successes for its project, it has also faced significant and multiple setbacks. Amongst them, state officials have had to contend with traditional Islamic authority that Malay elders carry and who cannot be ignored because these elders are time-entrenched authority figures in their community. One of the book's significant contributions is that it documents how Singapore, an avowedly secular state, has now