A Muslim Archipelago: Islam and Politics in Southeast Asia

On 10 -11 September 2003, the Center for the Study of Intelligence hosted a conference in Charlottesville, Virginia, to discuss the subject “Intelligence for a New Era in American Foreign Policy.” One of the recommendations from that conference, in the context of “Proposals for Change” within the Intelligence Community, was as follows: The U.S. government was a big actor in creating the broad and institutional knowledge base necessary for conducting the Cold War. Could we replicate that in some way today? We need to create, among other things, an atlas of Islam...a knowledge base. We ought to do it as a national project. This research study responds to this recommendation, albeit at a somewhat more modest level than “a national project.” Additionally, in order to narrow the focus, the current study focuses only on the countries of Southeast Asia—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. The current volume is a projected Volume One of a multi-volume study. The final result is intended to be a global compendium, attempting to assess the role and place of Islam in the contemporary world. As this work ends, the author begins research on a second volume tentatively titled “Islam in South Asia.” For more than 20 years the author taught a course at the National Defense Intelligence College on “Islam in the Contemporary World.” Through the years, students in this course have conducted research and written papers on the place of Islam in a country of choice. Other students chose a particular Islamist group to examine with an eye to assessing its particular significance. Altogether, more than 250 papers have been amassed. The current study is inspired by the efforts of all these students, but is significantly supplemented by the author’s own research and experience over even more years of study and teaching about Islam. In writing their papers, students responded to a standard set of five questions: 1. How did Islam come to the country? Or how did the country come to