The Colonial Legacy on Islam in South East Asia from Contemporary Perspective: A Brief Discussion- Faridah Mohd Tap

Islam is a way of life regardless in the west, the east, the north and the south of the world. In this writing, I will discuss specifically on Islam in South East Asia after being colonized by the foreign non-Muslim powers like the Dutch, the Spanish and the British. My discussion will focus on aspect of secularism which I believed have deep impact to Islam in South East Asia culturally, socially, politically, economically so on and so forth.


Introduction of secularism by the colonial powers to the countries in South East Asia had directly impact Islam as a way of life. From my understanding, secularism is the separation of religion in any aspect of worldly life. Syed Naquib Al-Attas has discussed about secularism in his famous book entitled ‘Islam and Secularism’. Among the elements in secularism stated in the book is the desacralization of politics. It means that religion and government must be separated. 


Based on my reading, secularism has no history in Islam. It was indeed evolved gradually in the Christian history especially in Europe back to 15th centuries ago. Secularization then had been broadening up to the Muslims world in the South East Asia from the moment the Western colonizers come in. To illustrate, the Pangkor treaty signed on 29th January 1874 in Malaya has limited the sultan’s power to the religious affairs and local custom solely. All the administrative matters must be consulted with the appointed British Resident. From that moment, religion has no place in politics.


The purpose behind the secularism in political matters is to bureaucratize the government officers to ensure the effectiveness and smoothness of administrative affairs. By implication, qadhi or any religious affairs started to be institutionalized like zakat and this scenario still applicable up to this day. In Malaysia for example, the sultan from each state is the head of religion (Islam) in their own territory. In addition, Malaysia also has Department of Religious Affairs in federal government. The problem now is, those politicians seem to be pious even he is not so can become the head of religion. 


On the other side, the religious obligation in each individual Muslims has now been institutionalized like pilgrimage, zakat and lots more. To make it worse, there are several types of Muslims which have different interpretation towards Islamic teaching. Therefore, we can see Islam liberal, Muslim secularist, fundamentalist, and many more. In brief, the colonial impact has downgraded Islam as way of life to something personal and has been mixed up with western values as well as ideology.


Furthermore, in terms of constitution, most countries in South East Asia adopted their ex-colonial master’s type of laws. Thus, the shariah law is hard to be implemented. Again Malaysia as an example, even we have Islamic laws as one of sources of laws, the laws are not easy to be applied. It is because, any crimes like murder stated in federal list cannot be punished according to shariah law like hudud law. So, dilemma between federal law and shariah law come into existence.


In conclusion, secularism bring forward by colonizers to the countries in South East Asia has made Islam to narrowed aspect of life. Today’s scenario, many Muslims regard Islam as personal matters. Politics, economics and social must been separated from being interfered by Islamic values. However, there are some Muslims want to establish Islamic state in all aspects. They are minority in the non-Muslims countries popularly known as separatist movements like in Philippines and South Thailand who struggle for autonomy and independent. In my opinion, it could take long time to bring back pure Islamic teaching as we have undergo a long colonization period. Besides, not all ideas from foreign are bad. It is our responsibility to differentiate what is good and what is bad from the eyes of Islamic worldview.