Religious Diversity in Muslim-Majority States in Southeast Asia

This book examines in great detail the extent and nature of the toleration for non-Muslim minorities in the two large Muslim-majority states of Southeast Asia - Indonesia and Malaysia. Set against the backdrop of increasing religious segregation and intolerance in recent years, Indonesia has witnessed an uneasy fluctuation in its traditional devotion to pluralist religious ideals and a tendency toward religious bigotry and state meddling in religious affairs. The Malaysian chapters deal with religious pluralism in Kuala Lumpur; Christian and Buddhist responses to perceived Muslim encroachment in their affairs; localized Christian minorities resisting and also accommodating hegemonic Muslim or Islamic presence and the intolerance of a dominant Sunni Islamic practice.