Religion and Society in Southeast Asia

Political Islam is a term that refers specifically to the formation of an Islamic state, one in which religion ultimately provides the context for political institutions and social lives.  Political Islam is most associated in popular discourse with extremism, and even terrorism, in Southwest Asia and North Africa region.  However, the link between extremist Islam and political Islam is specious, just as the link between Southwest Asia and North Africa is myopic.  Islamist states are also found in Southeast Asia, with the two most significant Islamist states being Malaysia and Indonesia.  In fact, Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world as of 2009.  It will be left to scholars and analysts to argue the merits or evils of political Islam as opposed to more secular Muslim states.  As geographers we can impartially investigate the interconnections between culture/religion, politics and society in the Southeast Asian region, especially within these Islamist states.  An interesting, although troubling, trend is the future of religious diversity in the Islamic states of Southeast Asia.  Both Indonesia and Malaysia are majority Muslim, but certainly not exclusively Muslim.  Each country has varying size populations of Buddhists, Christians, Hindus and animists.  The interaction between the various religious groups and the Islamic governments provides an interesting case for social politics in the region, and for other Muslim societies beyond.

An article for the International Relations and Security Network describes how both Indonesia and Malaysia have had similar histories marked by colonial domination, violent independence, and repressive dictators.  Throughout the years, Islam was either restricted or exploited by the various powers or governments.  In particular, it was the post-independence periods that saw Islamic social and political organizations become selectively integrated by dictators into secular states.  In both countries, Islam was used for political gain in ‘divide and rule’ approaches: in Indonesia, the “New Order” rule of Suharto fragmented Islamic groups into alliances to bolster his control; in Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad intertwined being Muslim exclusively with the majority Malay ethnic group, politically privileging that group over Chinese and Indian ethnicities as well as over other religious groups as well.  It is this context in which struggles over religious freedom are waged within both of these Southeast Asian countries.

In Indonesia, there have been significant clashes between Muslims and Christian groups since the end of the New Order government and the democratization of politics in the 1990s.  Although the democratic constitution guarantees religious freedom, the Islamic government has not decisively intervened on behalf of Christians or other ostracized groups in the face of “hard-line” or “vigilante” Islamic groups.  Groups like the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) have been targeting Christian congregations in the sprawling suburbs around Indonesia’s capital of Jakarta.  Behind all of these clashes are battles over place.  At the national scale, the FPI warns of the “Christianization” of Indonesia, as “Christians are up to something.” Vigilantism takes place at the local level, as FPI and other “hard-liners” target neighborhood congregations claiming the “Christianization” of their neighborhoods by Christian proselytization or the building of churches.  One protestant congregation was attacked and two of its leaders stabbed and beaten.  The group was forced to hold services in an empty lot despite “warning signs” posted by Muslim residents.

In Malaysia, there have also been clashes between the Muslim majority and minority Christian groups.  In particular was the cultural clash over the use of the word “Allah” to refer to the Christian god in a Malaysian language bible.  There was ambivalence within the government as it initially banned the use of the word, yet its ruling was overturned by the court.  The conflict did materialize into actual hostilities as Christian churches were vandalized or burned, and pig heads left at two mosques in retaliation.  The conflict over a single word illustrates the depth of racial politics, as the Malay ethnicity and language are conflated with the Muslim faith in state politics.  Further, Malaysian religious freedom also does not apply to all Muslim sects within the country.  Since 1996, the Shiite sect of Islam was definitively banned by the Malaysian government.  The sect is viewed by the government as a “threat to Muslim unity in Malaysia” and “could give rise to fanatics as it permits the killing of Muslims from other sects,” even going as far as directly linking it to the majority Shiite state of Iran.  A raid on a Shiite hauzar, or “house of knowledge,” was slanted by the media as an “anti-terror operation,” although the police were not involved in the raid.  The detention of Shiites from the raid is being appealed to the Malaysian Human Rights Commission, an advisory body to the government.  It will be unclear how the Commission will advise a government which already seems convinced that the Shiites are a national threat.

The complexities of political Islam in Southeast Asia are found from the national scale through to the local scale.  The seeming incongruity of the religious diversity of Southeast Asian societies is set within the social and philosophical control of the government by one religion.  Tensions within countries like Indonesia and Malaysia are experienced by people on the ground, as they struggle with one another and as they interact with the government at large.  Tensions are also existent in the political mores established by Southeast Asian governments, as constitutional or ‘human’ rights, which are transgressed or unsupported by various governmental institutions and agencies.

Yemeni Geographies and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

Yemen has emerged as a significant node in global terrorist networks since its connection to the 2009 “underwear bomber” and the 2010 printer bomb plots.  However, it has long been a terrorist hotbed, as the bombing of a U.S. warship in 2000 and subsequent attacks would attest.  Yemen is the center for the group known as “al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula.” This offshoot group has a surprising level of cunning shown in the printer bomb plot and organizational sophistication and egregiousness, as evidence in their newsletter Inspire and the.  Understanding why this little known country has become such a focal point in world security discourse is to the task of Geography.  Yemen has all the unfortunate qualities of a terrorist breeding ground.  A Time Magazine video report reveals some of geographic context for this during a road trip from North to South Yemen.  The Time video, along with BBC and Reuters articles, provide some evidence for Yemen’s historical and present-day social, economic and political geographies as necessary background for analyzing this Southwest Asian country’s long propensity for terrorist activity.

As the poorest country in the Arab world, just about 45% of Yemenis live on less than $2 a day.  Not only does that widespread poverty sow discontent, but Yemenis are also nearly equally divided among Shi’ites and Sunnis; itself a troublesome rift that is seen elsewhere in the region.  As a result, the country has been struggling for political stability.  Yemen was once two separate countries, the Yemen Arab Republic or North Yemen and the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen or South Yemen.  Both were united into the present state of Yemen in 1990.  The current government is widely seen to be ineffective by many Yemenis.  Some see it as corrupt and useless; unable to provide basic services for its citizens or support its flailing economy.  Some even see it as an illegitimate Western sell out, taking money and orders from outside interests.  The governments’ authority is also weakened by the continuing centrifugal forces that act within the country: the Shi’ite rebellion being waged in the North; the secessionist movement in the South; and the ongoing arms market and terrorism activities among fundamentalist and disaffected Yemenis.  In this context, political instability begets economic stagnation and collapse of authority.  Northern Yemenis have little to nothing in the way of development or an actual economy to provide jobs or services.  Southern Yemenis have some promise that comes from oil fields, tourism, and global shipping networks; however, this limited prosperity is what fuels their calls for secession.  In addition to all this is Yemen’s location as a well positioned country for terrorist activity.  It is located on the edge of Saudi Arabia – al Qaeda’s Arab enemy.  It controls half of one of the world’s most important geographic choke points, the Bab-el-Mandeb connecting the Red and Arabian Seas.  And, it is adjacent to another terrorist haven and failed state, Somalia.

A confluence of site and situation, Yemen has now captured the world’s attention as the latest terrorist stronghold.  What has magnified this further is the release of US diplomatic cables, or communications, on the site Wikileaks.  Without getting into the Wikileaks story on its own, the release of these relatively secret documents has revealed a surprisingly detailed underside of global diplomacy.  Not many places in the world were left unaffected by this event.  For Yemen, the Wikileaks cables revealed the strategies, alliances and troubles of the “war” against al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula.  Available for all to see are the connections between the Yemeni government and the United States and the role of the Saudis in fighting al Qaeda at the expense of the Yemeni government.  What is more is the unfortunate side effect of also exposing these connections for al Qaeda operatives, themselves, who may take the information as a propaganda opportunity to further delegitimize the government and enlist more recruits, in Yemen and beyond.

Yemen’s designation as a source of terrorism can certainly be explained by its regional geographic context.  However, it is merely one spoke in a global network of terrorism groups.  Like the other terrorism hotbeds in the world, globalization itself provides the tools and the targets for such extremist activities.  Terrorist groups rely on the same networks of global communications and transportation that they seek to disrupt with bomb plots.  And now, courtesy of Julian Assange, the globalization of political transparency in Wikileaks provides another tool for terrorists to potentially exploit.

Interconnections amid the floodwaters of Pakistan

The devastating floods that have inundated most of Pakistan over the summer provide plenty of opportunity for a sobering look at the interconnections between climate, politics, economy, and society, across scales.  Outside of the aid and trade questions that have been raised among the international community in helping Pakistan recover, there have been other interesting connections that can be discussed in many geography classes.

For many following this story, it seemed to begin with the torrential monsoon rains.  However, the actual events began with drought.  Below average rainfall levels were experienced in 2009 and as of early July 2010 they were expected to worsen.  National Geographic released a series of photos titled, “Amid Drought, Pakistan Prays for Rain.” And come the end of July, their prayers were answered.

Only a few weeks after the National Geographic photos, torrential monsoon rains begin to engulf Northern Pakistan, the very area shown to be stricken in the photos.  The levels of rainfall in just a few weeks broke records for the last 100 years.  Early on, there were cautionary words for the stressed Pakistani government, already fighting insurgency and coping with other domestic disasters, as they began to appeal to the international community for aid.  Following the initial rains, Pakistan was hit by high temperatures and continued rains that caused additional flooding and landslides.

For a developing world infrastructure, already uneven and inconsistent, the magnitude of destruction during and following the floods proved immense.  The first reports profiled the human devastation as thousands of people were killed and millions made homeless.  Included in these reports were the effects on livelihoods, as entire villages and towns, agricultural fields and livestock herds, food stores, and essential transport and social networks of roads, hospitals, etc., were wiped out.  The widespread damage is seen to set back the Pakistani infrastructure by many years.

For survivors, they were challenged with the day to day battle for food, limited by actual provisions or by rising food prices.  Limited access to clean water was leading to dehydration and dangers of water-borne disease.  The lack of shelter saw many flood victims exposed to the sun, high temperatures, disease-bearing insects and poisonous snakes.  The largest at-risk group of survivors are the millions of Pakistani children who are incredibly vulnerable to disease and malnutrition.  Continued rains on top of existing destruction meant survivors had to improvise transport and had to continue moving from one flood-ravaged area to the next.  The spreading impact of the floods and of survivors led to renewed fears over the future food and livelihoods of much larger populations.

Amid the devastation, some reports focused entirely on the destabilizing affects of such a natural disaster, in the already delicate stability of a place like Pakistan.  Much of this potential destabilization was shared between two foci:  the government and the Taliban.  The recovery was argued as the “Last Chance for Pakistan” being the “gravest security crisis” to be faced by the country and the South Asia region.  There were discrimination accusations of aid being delivered first to certain party supporters or wealthy landowners diverting floodwaters from their own fields to others’.  Out of this disarray, it was reported that the Taliban in Pakistan were able to regroup to the degree that considered targeting the already under-resourced aid workers in the country.  In the last few weeks after the flooding, the same problems remain, yet political in-fighting on how to move forward and who should act is now worse than ever.  This has led some to argue that it is the civil-military elite in the Pakistani government that have hindered international aid and that should be relieved of their duties in leading the recovery.  Ultimately, the appeals for international aid have been made on behalf of political stability, fighting insurgency, and also in mitigating the effects of climate change.

Through the drama of Pakistan’s natural disaster, issues of environment and society can be discussed in geography classes.  In physical geography courses, the discussion can focus on big scale issues of climate change and increasing extreme weather events, or can be smaller scale in illustrating flood plain events, like 100- and 500-year events.  In human geography courses, the discussion may venture into economic and social development, political structures, inequality, and the consequences of these for certain cultural/social groups, or overall recovery.  In world regional courses, the discussion can weave these issues together looking at the many human-environment interactions within the country, but also investigate global connections among security, international aid, and sovereignty.

As if this event was not powerful enough in black and white print, there have been many accompanying photo reports.  They add a greater significance to in-class discussions allowing students to visually identify the magnitude of the flooding, destruction and human devastation that these reports entail.  Photojournals have been posted by the Huffington Post, NPR, NPR’s The Two-Way blog, NPR’s Picture Show blog, and National Geographic.  NPR has also produced an interactive map detailing the extent of the floods in Pakistan’s four provinces, providing links to images and videos.

Discussion Questions:

1. Identify what climate region is Pakistan and the Indus River included in and what other climate regions border it?  How might this climate position explain the cycles of drought, monsoon rains, and flooding stages that have been seen in the 2010 Pakistan Floods?
2. Review some of the articles discussing the extent and effects of the Pakistan flooding.  What do these impacts tell us about the economic and social development in Pakistan, and in South Asia?  Think about infrastructure and settlement, population and poverty, and gender equity, among others.
3. What is the primary economic activity in Pakistan?  In what ways is it already environmentally vulnerable?  How has this vulnerability informed issues related to food security and development?  What additional vulnerabilities are revealed in the 2010 Pakistan Flood event?
4. What are some of the global concerns that hinge on Pakistan’s political security?  How are arguments over aid or trade in Pakistan’s recovery aimed at serving global security concerns?

The “Ground Zero Mosque” and Cultural Geography

There has been plenty of, well, talk about the proposed building of a Muslim community center two blocks away from Ground Zero.  The chatter has manifest around political arguments, religious liberties, urban development strategies, community-building, and mostly, impalpable feelings.  With no attempt to take sides or to analyze such points of view, this topic can be investigated from a cultural geographic approach that may offer insight into the contradictions, controversies and commotion.

In cultural geography, we investigate the context of a place.  In this case, we would interrogate the perspectives, activities, histories and futures that all overlap in the place we know as Lower Manhattan.  By interrogating the spatial context of a site, we find traces of culture imbued with change, power, and struggle.  These traces can be material acts, messages, and presences in place from yesterday, today and tomorrow; these traces can be non-material, emanating from peoples’ memories, emotions and psyches of place.  Cultural geography, and its approach, is particularly apt for considering the competing claims over the place of Lower Manhattan.  It is the simultaneous site for competing claims made by New Yorkers, Muslim-Americans, 9/11 victims and survivors, and all Americans.  These traces are what make the proposed placement of an Islamic community center such a contentious prospect.

At the heart of this debate is the intersection of national memory and place.  Lower Manhattan is the site of one of the most emotionally-stricken events in the American memory: the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers.  This national memory is itself composed of millions of individual acts of remembering.  Each colored by individual experiences, knowledges, prejudices, and perspectives.  That memory has a clear visual impression that does not require a precise knowledge of the actual geographies that contextualize that landscape.  It is the tensions within this national memory that draw the battle lines in this culture war over the site.

There are several themes that emerge from this controversy.  One of the first themes that occurs over and over is location.  Distance and proximity are paramount among the arguments over the location of the Muslim community center.  To some the simple math of counting city blocks settles the dispute.  To others, it is the traces of the event that call for more relative notions of adjacency and nearness.  This is perhaps the most obvious cultural act of bordering a place in order to underscore its meaning.

Another theme relates to the establishment of presence in the place: in particular, the presence of Muslims in Lower Manhattan.  By some, this presence has been continuously claimed from the past and into the present.  That existence has preceded and persisted with the main event at the heart of this debate: 9/11.  This is another act in claiming: by asserting belonging to the place, then rights to the place are substantiated.

Another theme relates to various the scales of the debate.  Ultimately the unease or struggle is sited not only in Lower Manhattan, but at the national scale of America.  Some of the ways this has become discernable is through the discursive focus on the planned cultural activity (Islam) and on the associated cultural identity (Muslim).  First, cultural activity is focused on at the site, but also can be seen being fought over at the national scale.  The space within the community center in the place of Lower Manhattan is not defined broadly as an interfaith space of worship or prayer, but narrowly as a space of Muslim worship or prayer.  It is respected that in America, religious freedom is to be tolerated.  However, as a result of national memory, many of the individual acts of remembering now associate that certain religion as inappropriate or out of place at this site.  Some have argued this distinction stems from the conflation of Islam with terrorism, and of Muslim with foreign.  And they would see this as resulting in the discomfort, fear, xenophobia that is heard among the chatter.  Second, cultural identity is also seen to be conflict-ridden at all scales.  Perhaps as a response to the conflation of Islam with terrorism or foreign, there have emerged discursive efforts to open up Muslim cultural identities to include not only religion, but to include coexisting roles as citizens, neighbors, stakeholders, and insiders.  This can be heard as claims to identities as New Yorkers, as Americans, and as families.

Such a controversy provides a rich opportunity for the application of the cultural geographic approach.  This approach is also often the least recognized or understood by non- and lay- geographers.  And yet, the processes that it investigates are the subconscious, intuitive and most human which we employ as we shape and engage with our world.  Introducing undergraduate geographers to the cultural geographic approach is a way of introducing them to human society, and to themselves.

Cultural Geography References:

Anderson (2010) Understanding Cultural Geography: Places and Traces, Routeledge.

Mitchell (2000) Cultural Geography: A Critical Introduction, Wiley-Blackwell.

Discussion Questions:

1. Recall your experience on the day of September 11, 2001.  Attempt to describe what might be the overall national memory of that day.  Where would your memory and the national memory converge and diverge?
2. Review the two ways that location is approached (i.e. the rigid distance approach or the affective adjacency approach) in this controversy along with the accompanying validation for their claim over the site.  Evaluate each argument separately.
3. Assess the importance of establishing presence and belonging.  What are some of the strategies that cultural presence or belonging is seen to be validated or negated?

Geography Directions: Islamic Finance

From our Geography Directions site reviewing Wiley-Blackwell’s Geography Compass review journal covering the entire discipline.  Keep up with cutting edge academic geography.  These articles may be useful for introducing students to the discipline or may be appropriate for upper division Geography classes.

Public confidence in the banking sector has been significantly shaken over recent years.  Given the turmoil caused by the global financial crisis, the depression and the public bail-outs of banks like RBS and Northern Rock; the raising levels of doubt and mistrust are hardly surprising.  Furthermore, such doubts show little sign of abating this week, as seven EU banks fail newly imposed ‘stress tests‘ by the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS).  As a result increasing numbers are looking for an alternative form of banking in which to invest and Islamic finance could just fit the bill.

Unlike the traditional banking sector, Islamic banking is based upon a strict set of principles; the central of which is that “money itself has no intrinsic value. [Also] as a matter of faith, a Muslim cannot lend money to, or receive money from someone and expect to benefit – interest (known as riba) is not allowed. To make money from money is forbidden – wealth can only be generated through legitimate trade and investment in assets. Money must be used in a productive way” (IBB).  As a result of this central principle Islamic finance is considered more stable (as the temptation to risk in search of profit is reduced) and more ethically appealing to many private savers and investors dismayed by increased profits and bankers bonuses.  Moreover, Pollard (2010) suggests that many organisations like the IBB, are attempting to market themselves as ‘ethical banks’ in areas such as the EU and USA which could otherwise be sceptical of the Islamic name.

In a recent issue of Area geographers Bassens, Derudder and Witlox detail the global spread of the Islamic finance model in recent years, charting how Islamic financial services have moved out of their historical base in the cities of the Middle East and become “anchored in the more conventional world cities” (2010, 44) of London and Paris, challenging our pre-existing geographical imaginations of the global financial sector.

These changes should be of great interest of all Human Geographers, as they offer a potentially fruitful intersection between social and cultural, political and economic geographical research; as we explore how the actions and values of the individual impact upon these globalised networks.

By Alexander Leo Phillips

To view the original article please visit the Geography Directions Blog.

Concept Caching: Dubai, UAE

From our Concept Caching image cache that hopes to promote student spatial awareness by relating specific features on the Earth’s surface with their visual character and GPS coordinates. Through the site photographs and GPS coordinates demonstrate core concepts in geography.  Images are “cached” for viewing by core concept and by region.  Images are certainly useful for introducing visual content to students in all Geography classes.

This image submitted by Harm de Blij provides a local backdrop for understanding the development of global economic and financial networks in the Middle East region.  Dubai emerged as a world center for business along with the region’s boom in oil.  Today, an entire sector of global finance is governed by Islamic institutions, centered in places like Dubai, as mentioned in the post Geography Directions: Islamic Finance.