Discursive Contest between Liberal and Literal Islam in Southeast Asia

The paper focuses on the impact of global Islamic revivalism and state Islamisation initiatives on the cultural practices, institutions and laws in Southeast Asia's Muslim majority states of Malaysia and Indonesia. In particular, the assault on adat and the reconfiguration of legal and political structures with the intrusion of Wahabi-inspired literal Islam from West Asia are considered. As the discursive contest between literal and liberal or progressive Islam1 will have a major impact on the direction and outcome of the protracted War on Terror, it is imperative that the discursive advances of the former are countered by reinforcing democratic structures and institutions and addressing localised sociopolitical and economic grievances. In the long term, liberal Islam's inclusive and flexible worldview based on ijtihad and universal humanism are likely to prove more effective than the reliance on draconian security-orientated measures in the protracted War on Terror.