Implementing Islamic Law within a Modern Constitutional Framework

Challenges and Problems in Contemporary Malaysia

Abstract

Muslim countries in the post-colonial period are faced with the challenge of developing political structures consistent with Islamic teachings. The uniqueness of the task stems from the fact that these structures have to be raised in a constitutional framework very different from their historical experience until modern times. This paper studies the case of Malaysia whose Federal Constitution proclaims Islam to be Malaysia’s official religion. Opinions have fiercely diverged among legal scholars and practitioners as to how substantive should the relevant clause on this matter be interpreted. Such vagueness is typical of the document whose drafting took place amidst intense negotiations among Malaysia’s multi-racial communities, resulting in an informal bargain or ‘social contract’ which till today remains a subject of dispute amidst the rising polarisation largely along ‘Muslim versus non-Muslim’ lines. Locating origins of contemporaneous legal conflict to divergent understandings of constitutional clauses, this paper proceeds to discuss contemporary controversies which shed light on Malaysia’s struggle to identify itself as a nation-state which integrates the best of both modern and Islamic civilisations. It is argued that this delicate balance has been recently threatened by the increasing penetration of a form of orthodox Islamist legalism which seems to antagonise non-Muslim minorities and unduly homogenises its Malay-Muslim population. The cut-off point for this article is Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s tenure as Prime Minister of Malaysia, which drew to a close in April 2009 under embattled circumstances.