Overview

Cosmopolitan ideals and pluralist tendencies have been employed creatively and adapted carefully by Muslim individuals, societies and institutions in modern Southeast Asia to produce the necessary contexts for mutual tolerance and shared respect between and within different groups in society. Organised around six key themes that interweave the connected histories of three countries in Southeast Asia Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia this book shows the ways in which historical actors have promoted better understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims in the region. Case studies from across these countries of the Malay world take in the rise of the network society in the region in the 1970s up until the early 21st century, providing a panoramic view of Muslim cosmopolitan practices, outlook and visions in the region.

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9781474408882

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"'Muslim Cosmopolitanism: Southeast Asian Islam in Comparative Perspective, provides a multi-disciplinary perspective of everyday cosmopolitanisms in the market- place, the mosque, online spaces and in hijabi fashion...Scholars of cosmopolitanism would do well to identify (and research) alternatives to the neo-liberal global order and strident nationalisms that we witness in the world today, connect to the deep traditions and values of specific sites and communities that invoke cosmopolitan localism and identify the social practices that can sustain such visions. Aljunied's book offers a model of scholarly practice in these directions.'--Mark Baildon, National Institute of Singapore ""Citizenship Teaching & Learning"""

Exhaustively researched and beautifully written, this is a path-breaking work that conceptualizes Muslim cosmopolitanism from the everyday social relations that mark Muslim societies in Southeast Asia. One of the most engaging books on modern Southeast Asia in a long time. -- Seema Alavi, Author of Muslim Cosmopolitanism in the Age of Empire

Aljunied asserts a cosmopolitan Southeast Asia where homes and houses of worship exist peacefully side by side. To make his argument, Aljunied takes readers on a narrative adventure: first through the marketplace and its multi-ethnic interactions; then to the mosque and its collaboration of forms; next to it, the oldest Hindu temple and the space exchanges between these two. He moves on to consider the place of women's scarves in public life and offers brief autobiographies of leading public intellectuals. Considerations of diversity are even present in women's headscarves. The one space where there is tension with cosmopolitanism is within the governments themselves. A good read. -- A. B. Al-Deen, DePaul University, CHOICE This book is a new must read not only for academic specialists and students in this field, but also for more general readers (including policy who want to understand what is really going on with Islam in Southeast Asia, without falling into the pitfall of orientalist or alarmist bias. -- Ikuya Tokoro, International Journal of Asian Studies

Aljunied asserts a cosmopolitan Southeast Asia where homes and houses of worship exist peacefully side by side. To make his argument, Aljunied takes readers on a narrative adventure: first through the marketplace and its multi-ethnic interactions; then to the mosque and its collaboration of forms; next to it, the oldest Hindu temple and the space exchanges between these two. He moves on to consider the place of women's scarves in public life and offers brief autobiographies of leading public intellectuals. Considerations of diversity are even present in women's headscarves. The one space where there is tension with cosmopolitanism is within the governments themselves. A good read. -- A. B. Al-Deen, DePaul University, CHOICE

Author Information

Khairudin Aljunied is Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore. He is author of several books, most recently Radicals: Resistance and Mobilization in Colonial Malaya (2015) and Colonialism, Violence and Muslims in Southeast Asia: The Maria Hertogh Controversy and Its Aftermath (2009).

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