7 The Islamization Phenomenon: The New Constitutional Battlefront

This chapter examines the phenomenon of Islamization in Malaysia. The hallmark of Islamism is its ‘quintessentially political agenda’ involving ‘the politicization of Islam through the aligning of structures of governance and society with Islamic strictures’. In contemporary Malaysia, Islamization puts into the spotlight the reconciliation of this phenomenon with the Malaysian Constitution, which was crafted as a governing instrument for a multiracial, multilingual, and multireligious society. The general unease of the non-Muslim segment of Malaysian society was aggravated by a highly publicized pronouncement of Prime Minister Mahathir, on 29 September 2001, that Malaysia was already an Islamic State. The remainder of the chapter discusses controversial episodes that have engendered concern over the Islamization phenomenon and its significance for constitutionalism in Malaysia.