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Researcher | Institution | Original publication | Reading recommendations | Beyond | CitationWhile doing anthropological fieldwork in Malaysia, DOMINIK MÜLLER noticed that the Islamic Party of Malaysia organizes events and activities that are frequently embellished with popular culture elements, such as bands playing on electric guitars. This seemed at odds with common Western assumptions that Islamic political movements tend to condemn popular culture as un-Islamic. Müller then investigated how the change of the party’s religious stance – a Sharia-framed stance that had still been adamant twenty years before – came about. He found that not only the Islamic Party has opened itself to new forms of modern pop culture but also these elements have been appropriated and reframed in an Islamic context to convey the political messages of the party. This ethnographic study shows that Islamist ideologies can be much more complex and flexible than many people would normally assume.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21036/LTPUB10426
Institution
Original publication
Islamic Politics and Popular Culture in Malaysia: Negotiating Normative Change Between Shariah Law and Electric Guitars
Indonesia and the Malay World
Published in 2015
Reading recommendations
Pop, Politics and Piety
Islam and Popular Culture in Indonesia and Malaysia
Published in 2011
Sonic Histories in a Southeast Asian Context
Sonic Modernities in the Malay World
Published in 2014
Political Islam in Malaysia: Legitimacy, Hegemony and Resistance
Islamic Legitimacy in a Plural Asia, Routledge, London and New York
Published in 2007
Beyond
A Ground-breaking Scientific Revolution
An Alarming Challenge for Society
If I Had a Second Life
A Personal Reading Recommendation