The Malaysian Islamic Party PAS 1951-2013: Islamism in a Mottled Nation
The Malaysian Islamic Party PAS 1951-2013: Islamism in a Mottled Nation
by Farish A. Noor
Amsterdam University Press, 2014 eISBN: 978-90-485-2181-4 | Cloth: 978-90-8964-576-0
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party PAS is the biggest opposition party in Malaysia today and one of the most prominent Islamist parties in Southeast Asia. This work recounts the historical development of PAS from 1951 to the present, and looks at how it has risen to become a political movement that is both local and transnational, tracking its rise from the Cold War to the age of the War on Terror, and its evolving ideological postures - from anti-colonialism to post-revolutionary Islamism, as the party adapted itself to the realities of the postmodern global age. PAS's long engagement with modernity and its nuanced approach to the goal of state capture is the focus of this work, as it recounts the story of the Islamist party and Malaysia by extension.Download the Table of Contents and Introduction
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
[Farish A Noor](https://www.rsis.edu.sg/profile/farish-badrol-hisham-ahmad-noor/) is Associate Professor at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, where he teaches the history and politics of Southeast Asia.
REVIEWS
“This is without a doubt the best study of PAS that has appeared to date, and at the same time a social and political history of independent Malaysia seen from the margins. It is essential reading not only for those who wish to understand Malaysian politics, but also for students of contemporary Islamist movements.”
— Martin van Bruinessen, Utrecht University
"Noor as a local Malaysian scholar now based in Singapore has spent many years researching PAS and developing contacts with local cadres. This expertise with the subject matter is clearly demonstrated in his nuanced and careful analysis of PAS, as both an ideological Islamist movement striving for sharia and as a pragmatic political party seeking power by working with opposition secular Malay nationalist and minority non-Malay parties."
— Pacific Affairs
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Islamism in a Mottled Nation: The Story of PAS
Where and When We Are: Locating PAS in Today’s Overdetermined and Highly Contested Malaysia
1. 1951-1969: The Orphan of the Cold War
An Islamic Party Steps on the Stage of Malaysian Politics
Islamism Ascending: How and Why Political Islam Emerged in the World of Malayan Politics
The Kaum Muda Challenge: Islamist Activism as the Precedent to Islamist Politics
Competing Discourses during the Japanese Military Occupation of Malaya
The First Expression of Malay-Muslim Nationalism: The Partai Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya
Political Islam before PAS: The Short-lived Hizbul Muslimin Party of Malaya
Born from the Womb of UMNO: The Early Years of PAS as Persatuan Islam Se-Malaya
PAS under Dr. Burhanuddin al-Helmy: Islamism to the Left
2. From Internationalism to Communitarianism
PAS as the Defender of Malay Rights: 1970-1982
From Internationalism to Localism: PAS’s Inward Turn in the 1970s
The Fire of Youth: Student Activism and Islamism on the Campuses of Malaysia in the 1970s
The Islamist Tide Grows Stronger: PAS in the Muslim World at the Close of the 1970s
3. PAS in the Global Islamist Wave: 1982-1999
1982: The Ulama era begins
Ustaz Yusof bin Abdullah al-Rawa and PAS’s Renewed Jihad of the 1980s
Against the Secular State: Violence and Confrontation in PAS’s politics of the 1980s
The Islamists Falter: PAS’s Nadir in 1986
On to the 1990s: PAS redefines its Jihad
The Ground Shifts, Again: The Narrowing of the Muslim Political Arena from the Mid-1990s to
1999
4. The Jihad of the Ballot Box
PAS’s Democratic Experiment: 2000-2013
2000-2004: The New Century Explodes
The 2004 Election Debacle and the Resurgence of the Reformist ‘Erdogan’ Faction in PAS
The 8 March 2008 Tsunami: The Eclipse of Islam Hadari and the Return of PAS
PAS in the Era of 1Malaysia: The Internal Divisions Finally Come to the Surface
The Return of the Repressed: The Sabah ‘Sulu Crisis’ and Its Impact on Malaysia
Endnote, Though Not Endgame: PAS in the Future
5. Religion, Politics, Islam, Islamism
What PAS Is, and What It Is Not
PAS and the Lure of All-Devouring Politics
The Understanding-that-Kills: Knowing the Islamic State
Between Tidy Universes and Fuzzy Borders
The Unending Road: Islamism in a Loop