The Minority Muslim Experience in Mainland Southeast Asia: A Different Path

John Goodman
Paperback, 222 pages
9781032011202

This book examines the lives of the Malay and Cham Muslims in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam and examines how they co-exist and live in societies that are dominated by an alternative consensus and are illiberal and non-democratic in nature.

Focusing on two major Muslim communities in Southeast Asia, both of whom live as minorities in societies that are not democratic and have a history of hostility and repression towards non-conforming ideas, the book explains their circumstances, the choices and life decisions they have to make, and how minorities can thrive in an unfriendly, monocultural environment. Based on original field work and research, the author analyses how people live, and how they adapt to societies which are not motivated by Western liberal ideals of multiculturalism. The book also offers a unique perspective on how Islam develops in an environment where it is seen as alien and disloyal.

Contents
1. Introduction and Historical Context
2. The Trauma of New State Development
3. How State and Minority Relations Evolve Up to the Present Day
4. Implications of the Congruence Between Islam and Malay/Cham Minority Status
5. Changing Issues in Society – and the Effect on Minority Muslims
6. Islam – The Forms, Practices and Connections of Islam for Cham and Malay Minorities
7. Muslim Minority Involvement in Politics and Civil Society
8. The Muslim Interface with the Buddhist World (and the Complex of Religions in Vietnam)
9. Minorities in Monocultural Societies – The Southeast Asian Example