The State, Ulama and Islam in Malaysia and Indonesia

Download or read book The State, Ulama and Islam in Malaysia and Indonesia written by Norshahril Saat and published by Amsterdam University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-23 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Suharto (1966-98) government of Indonesia and the Mahathir (1981-2003) government of Malaysia both launched Islamisation programmes, upgrading and creating religious institutions. The author argues that, while generally ulamas, or religious teachers, had to support state ideologies, they sometimes succeeded in "capturing" the state by influencing policies in their favour. The author builds his argument on strong fieldwork data, especially interviews, and he engages in critical discussion of comparative politics paradigms and the concept of capture.