Religion & Society

 The Islamic Sultanate of Brunei is the wealthiest nation per capita in Southeast Asia and one of the wealthiest nations in the world. Its rich oil reserves, expected to run out in less than 20 years, have enabled it to become highly industrialised and developed. Yet in spite of those trappings of modernity, it remains an absolute monarchy under Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah. Since gaining independence from the United Kingdom on 1 January 1984, it is slowly becoming one of the least-enlightened former British colonies, principally in terms of one feature: its increasing embrace of Sharia law. On 1 May 2014, Sharia law was enacted, to be implemented in stages in following years (Brunei:The Sharia Surprise, en, June 2014). Initially, offences were punishable by fines or imprisonment, but in April 2019 the complete Sharia criminal code came into effect, to the consternation of liberally-minded Bruneian Muslims. However, Sharia law encompasses much more then criminal codes. It is in the area...

  Today Indonesia is home to the largest Muslim population of any nation on the planet. But when, and how, was this region converted? And how were Islamic ideas and texts translated into the Malay language that became a regional lingua franca for Muslims across Southeast Asia at large?  In this episode of Akbar's Chamber , hosted by Prof Nile Green of the University of California Los Angeles and in discussion with Prof Peter Riddell, we’ll survey over a thousand years of Southeast Asia’s religious history, from the arrival of early Arab merchants to the emergence of sultanates ruled by local Muslim rulers and the subsequent dynamics – and disputes – between mystical and legalist visions of the faith. We’ll also look at the overarching process of translation, both of cultural practices and particular texts, by taking a look at the emergence of the ‘Jawi’ literary tradition and the first complete commentary on the Quran in Malay. Bringing the story up to the present, we’ll final...

 In his latest book, Studying the Qur’ān in the Muslim Academy , Majid Daneshgar sets out to cast the spotlight on methods and priorities in the study of the Qur’an within what he describes as “the Muslim academy.” The Introduction maps out core arguments of his book. Daneshgar identifies Muslim apologetics as the device used to ensure that “Muslims are not given access to critical non-Muslim writings about the Qurʾān and Islam while guaranteeing that a customary sectarian divide insulates Sunnis and Shiʿi from each other’s ideas and works” (2). Read on here .

The High Court of Malaysia has passed a ruling allowing non-Muslims to use the term “Allah” for God in their Malay-language worship services and literature. On face value, this should appear uncontroversial as Christians in that region have referred to God as “Allah” for 400 years, including using the term in translations of the Bible into Malay. Lond-standing dispute However, this development masks a 35-year dispute that has undermined Christian-Muslim relations in Malaysia in substantial ways. In 1986 the Malaysian government prohibited the use of “Allah” by non-Muslims. This policy is unique to Malaysia. In today’s Arab world,  “Allah” is the standard term for God among Arabic-speaking Christians of different denominations. In neighbouring Indonesia,  “Allah” is commonly used by Christians; the 1974 New Translation of the Bible in Indonesian renders the Old Testament Hebrew terms for God with  “Allah”. These usages occur in their different locations witho...