Malay Muslims: The History and Challenge of Resurgent Islam in Southeast Asia

Rating:
Summary: Real Bad
Review: I had looked forward to reading this book. Alas, there is something that is not quite right with it. First of all, McAmis' definition of Malay is quite misleading. His definition is a bit too liberal and too broad. Malay first and foremost in today's terminological use refers to Malays in Malaysia. While some Malays in Malaysia are likely to see Southern Filipinos, Indonesians, etc as their distant kinsmen, they're not very likely to call them Malays. 'Malay' is very strictly defined in legal terms in Malaysia. To broaden this definition as McAmis does is akin to saying that Vietnamese, Thais, Cambodians, Laotians are all 'essentially' Chinese. Apart from that, McAmis' research into Islamism in SEA isn't too illuminating. Judith Nagata has, in her essays, done a much better job. She has written about the dakwah movement and given such details that I am, as a Malaysian, completely amazed by how much she managed to ferret out of these communities.

Rating:
Summary: It's not a brilliant book, but for other reasons.
Review: The above review by Mr Lim is fundamentally wrong. Historically, Malays are one coherent group sharing the same origins, same culture and largely the same history. Any serious research cannot ignore large groups of Malays just because they happen to end up on one side or the other of colonial boundaries.

Malaysia was named Malaya, later Malaysia, by the British and the name has stuck. That does not make large groups of Sumatra Indonesians less Malays. In fact, most of them proudly speak about themselves as Malays and acknowledge that Bahasa Indonesia derives from Bahasa Melayu.

Likewise, 16-18th century kingdoms like that of Johor-Riau can, according to Mr Lim, not be studied, since its territory is now split between three states, Johor (Malaysia), Singapore and Riau (Indonesia). The influential religious capital of this kingdom was on the Riau island itself, and the regicide of 1699 is one of the most important events in Malay history ever.

The very name 'Malay' comes from Sungai Melayu, which was a river system between Jambi and Siak. Namewise, the Orang Laut of this river system were the original 'Malays'.