Islamic Revivalism And Political Development In Malaysia

The Islamic revivalism in Malaysia, which started since the late 1960s and early 1970s, has had a great impact not only on the development of its politics, economy, and society, but also on its ethnic relations, international policies, and the regional political structures. It has also exerted great influence on Sino-Malaysia relations. Therefore it is very important to study theoretically the origin, evolution, and future trend of the Islamic Revivalism in this country. The practical purport of the study lies in the fact that it can offer a systematic reference to the analysis and decision-making regarding the religion, politics, economy, and diplomacy on this Southeast Asia state.This paper introduces the history and current status of the Islamic Revivalism in and outside Malaysia. The analytical focus is on the essence and the progress pattern for this movement, especially the impacts exerted on the political life in Malaysia. This paper tries to explain various social phenomenon under the name of"Islam". This paper also offers its own view regarding the potential change and developmental trend of the Islamic Revivalism in the country.The structure and the arrangement of chapters are as follows:The foreword introduces the significance, the theoretical structure and the methodology of this thesis, and provides some comments on the literatures in this research field. Terms and their concepts are also given in this part. Chapter one reviews the history and characteristics of Islamic promulgation in Malaysia, analyzes the domestic and foreign background of Islamic Revivalism in the country, and finally points out that the Islamic resurgence in Malaysia was ignited by both international Islamic movement and domestic political and economic development.Chapter two discusses the five phases of the Islamic Revivalism, its evolvement from campus activities to societies, struggles among political parties, and the relation between government's Islamizational notion and the mass Islamic Revivalism.Chapter three studies the various organizations established during the movementby analyzing their objectives, strategies, ways of action, and its different models with regarding to Malaysia's political development, thus highlights the essence and pattern of Islamic Revivalism in Malaysia.Chapter four analyzes the impact of Islamic Revivalism on Malaysia's political development through three aspects: Malaysian government's response to Islamic Revivalism, the Malaysian government's Islamization policies and its pro-Muslim foreign policies.The last part of this paper summarizes the studies on the Islamic Revivalism in Malaysia, provides the author's view regarding the coming trend of Islamic Revivalism and the political development in Malaysia: Malaysia will not become an Islamic state and the influence of the Islamic Revivalism will decline gradually.