Norshahril Saat, ed. Islam in Southeast Asia: Negotiating Modernity. Singapore: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, 2018, 252 pp.

• Main Author: Marañon, Ia Denise Arnette
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2019
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/socialtransformations/vol7/iss1/10; https://archium.ateneo.edu/context/socialtransformations/article/1109/viewcontent/ST_207.1_2010_20Book_20review_20__20Mara_C3_B1on.pdf
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

Excerpt: Issues concerning Islam in Southeast Asia are often rife with discourses on radicalization, humanitarian crises, and separatist movements. These are significant yet inexhaustive accounts of the Muslim experience in Southeast Asia either through news and published academic works. Edited by Norshahril Saat, Islam in Southeast Asia: Negotiating Modernity creates a space for the experience of the countries embodying “moderate Islam.” The work, a result of a compilation of papers from a workshop about Islamic developments in Southeast Asia, is timely. As it attempts to capture and articulate ongoing processes that are otherwise studied retroactively, that which makes it difficult to create possible interventions for. Saat, along with the accomplished contributors, grapple with the ebbs and flows of modernity that Islam is situated in. The book primarily focuses on the impact of what is referred to as “Arabization” in the process of contending with ever-developing world contexts.