Abstract
For Dr. Mahathir, Islam was more than a personal creed. It was a tool to help uplift the Malays and pursue his dreams of a fully developed Malaysia.1 The problem, as he saw it, was that Islam-dominated Malay culture was an obstacle to their advancement. It was not so much the religion itself, he believed, but the local interpretation of Islamic doctrines that caused the trouble. So he defined for Malaysian Muslims an interpretation of Islam that was meant not only to take care of their spiritual wellbeing, but to secure material benefits for them as well.
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Notes
Patricia Martinez, “Perhaps He Deserved Better: The Disjuncture between Vision and Reality in Mahathir’s Islam”, in Bridget Welsh, ed., Reflections: The Mahathir Years (Washington: Southeast Asia Studies Program, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, 2004 ), p. 28.
Farish A. Noor, “How Mahathir Became ‘Mahazalim’”, in The Other Malaysia: Writings on Malaysia’s Subaltern History ( Kuala Lumpur: Silverfishbooks, 2002 ), pp. 142–144.
John Funston, “Malaysia”, in Greg Fealy and Virginia Hooker, eds, Voices of Islam in Southeast Asia: A Contemporary Sourcebook ( Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2006 ), p. 54.
Chandra Muzaffar, Islamic Resurgence in Malaysia ( Petaling Jaya: Penerbit Fajar Bakti Sdn. Bhd., 1987 ), p. 3.
R.S. Milne and Diane K. Mauzy, Malaysian Politics Under Mahathir ( London: Routledge, 1999 ), p. 83.
Mahathir Mohamad, The Challenge ( Petaling Jaya: Pelanduk Publications (M) Sdn Bhd., 1986 ).
Patricia Martinez, “Mahathir, Islam, and the New Malay Dilemma”, in Ho Khai Leong and James Chin, eds, Mahathir’s Administration: Performance and Crisis in Governance ( Singapore: Times Media Pte. Ltd., 2001 ), p. 221.
Khoo Boo Teik, Paradoxes of Mahathirism: An Intellectual Biography of Mahathir Mohamad ( Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1995 ), p. 161.
Shanti Nair, Islam in Malaysian Foreign Policy ( London: Routledge, 1997 ), p. 91.
Zainuddin Maidin, The Other Side of Mahathir ( Kuala Lumpur: Utusan Publications & Distributors Sdn. Bhd., 1994 ), pp. 119–120.
Karminder Singh Dhillon, Malaysian Foreign Policy in the Mahathir Era (1981–2003): Dilemmas of Development ( Singapore: NUS Press, 2009 ), p. 255.
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© 2009 Barry Wain
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Wain, B. (2009). The Perils of a Pragmatic Islam. In: Malaysian Maverick. Critical Studies of the Asia Pacific Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230251236_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230251236_9
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