COVER STORY Standing Up for Islam
Muslims are fighting back—not just against the West but also against the militancy in their midst. A TIME Special Report on the diversity of Islam in Asia
After Bali
Asia—and the world—reels after a devastating attack (Oct. 28, 2002)
Indonesia's Rage Culture
Why does a moderate Islamic nation serve as a hotbed for religious extremists? (Oct. 28, 2002)
Taking the Hard Road
Indonesia's tough choice: crack down on extremists and risk backlash—or incur America's wrath (Sep. 30, 2002)
The Moderate Majority
Asia's progressive Islam can be a strong weapon against extremism (Oct. 28, 2002)
The Politics of Islam
To many Southeast Asian Muslims, reports Michael Schuman, Islam is born again—as a political force
PHOTOGRAPH FOR TIME BY JOHN STANMEYER-VII
Cautious: Rais, pictured in this mural at his party headquarters, believes you can't win on a purely Islamist platform
Nik Aziz Nik Mat doesn't look like a man out to fundamentally change Malaysia. Each day, after late-afternoon prayers, the 72-year-old Islamic cleric musters the little strength left in his frail frame to open clunky wooden doors to a sitting room in his tile-roofed, six-room home, a rebuilt version of the one in which he grew up. There, dressed in a beige robe and white turban, a tuft of a beard protruding from his chin, he hosts a menagerie of visitors seeking religious guidance, marriage advice and emotional support. One worried man, huddled with Nik Aziz on a dusty sofa, recounts that a mystic, using black magic, cast a spell on him, forcing him to hand over more than $10,000. Nik Aziz, speaking softly in a grandfatherly manner, agrees to pray to Allah to find a solution.
But beyond his down-home charm, Nik Aziz has a sterner message to deliver. Though the majority of Malaysia's people are Malay Muslims, many others are Chinese and Indian. Nik Aziz, however, wants what is a multiethnic, multireligious country to become a state governed by Islamic law. Under the rigorous dictates of ShariŒa, thieves would have their hands chopped off, adulterers would be executed by stoning and anyone engaging in premarital sex would be lashed. As chief minister of northern Kelantan state and, more importantly, as spiritual leader of Malaysia's Islamic Party, known by its Malay acronym PAS, Nik Aziz's voice is impossible to ignore. "Islam is for everybody," he preaches. "I don't see any alternative to Islam."
In Southeast Asia, that doctrine is fast becoming gospel among a growing segment of true believers. Left on the margins of economic development, forced to confront their own piety in the face of backlash against the Sept. 11 attacks and Bali bombings, and threatened by the seemingly unstoppable onslaught of Western culture, many Muslims are turning to Islam for both political and religious answers. This awakening of an Islamic political culture may be cause for cautious optimism, because it is better to have religious groups, even the most orthodox or radical, operating within democratic processes rather than going underground. When allowed to participate freely in politics, disenchanted Muslims are less likely to turn to extremism—as has happened in autocratic Saudi Arabia with such terrifying consequences. This increasing politicization of Islam does have societywide consequences as more powerful clerics and Muslim politicians stridently demand that Islamic law become the law of the land. Malaysia and Indonesia, Southeast Asia's only Muslim-majority nations and traditionally exemplars of openness and diversity, are facing the consequences of Muslim political parties flexing their muscles and winning over the masses. "People have become frustrated," says Ahmad Syafii Maarif, chairman of Muhammadiyah, one of Indonesia's most influential Islamic organizations. "They have no trust in government. Some see Islam as a panacea."
The success of these movements, though, is far from assured. They face stiff resistance from secularists who paint them as dangerous extremists, and they are split by divergent views of their own religion and the role it should play in politics. Nor is Islam in Southeast Asia moving in one clear direction. The ground for hard-line Islamists appears more fertile in Malaysia than in Indonesia, despite fears of growing radicalism in the archipelago. Yet some political analysts believe the Islamists are already approaching the peak of their power, with Southeast Asia's vast diversity acting as a natural brake—Malaysia's 5.4 million Chinese, for example, are unlikely to tolerate the imposition of ShariŒa law. Says Douglas Ramage, representative of the Asia Foundation in Indonesia: "There is little evidence that Islamic political parties will expand their support."
Nevertheless, Islamists today are a more formidable force than they have been for decades. Four years ago, PAS was a marginal player in Malaysian politics, limited mainly to Kelantan. But in the 1999 general elections, PAS took over a second state government, in neighboring Terengganu, and more than tripled the number of seats it held in the national parliament, to 27 out of 193. Even though PAS is unlikely to take power at the federal level, it is now the only serious opposition to long-serving Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and his political party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), and is looking to gain more ground in the next general elections, expected this year. Says Khairy Jamaluddin, a member of the executive committee of UMNO's youth wing: "We are hurtling toward an increasingly conservative Islamic country."
In Malaysia, the epicenter of the Islamic movement is Kota Baharu, perhaps the most traditional Muslim city in East Asia and, as the capital of Kelantan, Nik Aziz's home base. Don't expect to see young women in hip-huggers boogying the night away at loud discos where the sexes mix freely—as is common in Malaysia's raucous capital, Kuala Lumpur. Here, women in flowing white robes and head scarves move unhurriedly through quiet streets and whitewashed buildings. The local government, following Islam's precepts, has barred Muslims from drinking alcohol and shuttered the bars and nightclubs. When the call to prayer echoes from the city's mosque, management at the Levi's jean shop in the central market shuts off the store's booming stereo and patrons reduce their voices to a whisper. Kota Baharu's supermarkets have separate checkout counters for men and women, to make sure no unseemly contact takes place. Billboards advertise women's shampoo with models wrapped so tightly in head scarves that not a strand of hair can be seen. The Perdana Hotel proudly displays a sign offering massages, but so no male customers get the wrong idea, it adds "by a man."
This is an environment seemingly custom-made for Nik Aziz, who wins votes more with piety than politics. Twice a week, Nik Aziz joins the faithful for the day's final prayer at the spartan mosque he built next to his house and then sits cross-legged on a raised platform to give a lecture on Islam. Hundreds of followers come to listen and buy Nik Aziz key chains at a kiosk outside. One devotee, Ismail Omar, has been attending the lectures for the past 38 years "to learn how to live the Muslim way." And of course he votes for PAS and supports Nik Aziz's plans for an Islamic state, which he says "would be the best" for Malaysia. "We are true Muslims," he explains.
