Islamic cultures and the manifestation of faith in the Malaysian society

Malaysia’s political system and society o�er interesting frameworks for the exploration of the embedment of Islamic cultures and practices. It is written in the history of the pre-independent Malaya, British recruited Chinese and Indian labourers to support its divide and rule policy. As a result, people were racially, socially, and economically segregated. The situation got bitter when Chinese and Indians were given the rights of citizenship which were perceived by the Malays as a threat to their rights as an inland people. As a compensation, Malay and Islam have been given preferential treatment through special rights and positions which are enshrined in the social contract (Haque, 2003; Yousif, 2004). Hence, as evidenced today, Malaysia consists of a unique blend of history, religions, ethnicities, cultures and politics; with the Malay-Muslim as the dominant group followed by Chinese and Indian along with other ethnic minority groups. Islam has been since designated as the religion of the federation and assigned in the Malay identity and its roles have been expanded to be included in the public society. The study contends that Islam is seen as a key site of ideological struggle to produce a set of hegemonic structures by the state. One of the ways is through the embedment of Islamic practices and values in the Malaysian society in an e�ort to compose Malaysia’s dominant cultures. It is argued that the cultural implications and experiences of Islam has not been speci�cally or substantively addressed, since most research focused on the broader role of Islam in Malaysian politics (The study is carried out in Peninsular Malaysia)