RELIGIO-POLITICAL ACTIVISM OF ULAMA IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

This thesis examines the transformation in the role of ulama in modern Malaysia and its impact on the state and society. The focus is primarily on the religious scholars of Malaya (subsequently Malaysia). The key argument is that ulama have mobilized and reconstructed Islamic tradition to define issues of religious identity and authority in the public sphere and to articulate a more important role for themselves in contemporary politics. The thesis will first provide a historical survey of the religio-political activism of ulama in Malaysia. It will then examine the factors that prompted ulama to reconstruct tradition in an attempt to seek greater religious and political authority for themselves in the 1980s. It will then examine how ulama reconstructed tradition to gain political authority and the impact of ulamaa??s increasing religio-political authority on the religious and political nature of Malaysian society.