Contemporary Islamic Popular Culture in Southeast Asia

Islamic contemporary popular culture in Southeast Asia is supported by the dominance of knowledge production and cultural expression. Specifically, pop culture products are mediated by both old and new media, consisting of diverse material cultures such as film, television, and popular print media (newspapers, magazines, comic books, and novels), in addition to products that emerge within social media and websites that provide content and generate other creations consisting of texts and videos. These Islamic popular cultures are mainly practiced by most Muslims in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam and by Muslim minority populations, such as those in Singapore. Not only does this represent a form of Islamization in the public sphere that has been strongly linked with Islamic politics and the expansion of capitalist industry, but it is also connected to the changing Muslim population, namely the emergence of an educated urban Muslim middle class that embraces democratic values and human rights. These intersecting developments intervene in the market and Muslim consumption patterns to represent their voices, lifestyles, and identities, demonstrating the interplay between modernity and Islamic piety in the Southeast Asian Muslim’s everyday life. In the context of Muslim minorities in Singapore, specifically, pop culture produced by Muslim groups as a part of DIY culture (Do It Yourself) is a function of asserting Muslim identity in the context of challenges ranging from Islamophobia to the stigma associated with September 11. Globally, the Islamic resurgence in Southeast Asia was inspired by both the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and Islamized thinkers as well as its movement in the Middle East and Pakistan. In the Iran Revolution, for instance, there was an inspiration to establish trend thought and movement. In trend thought, as an Islamic publisher located in Bandung, West Java, Mizan promoted some of the Islamic thinker’s works such as Mula Sadra, Ali Shariati, and Ayatullah Khumaeni. In movement, Jalaluddin Rahmat was an Indonesian Islamic intellectual obtaining inspiration from the Iran Revolution by establishing an Islamic organization, well-known as Ikatan Jamaa’h Ahlul Bait (IJABI). Concerning the influence of Islamized thinkers such as Hasan Al-Bana and Abdul A’la Al-Maududi, as well as Ikhwanul Muslim (Islamic brotherhood), there are the Tarbiyah movement which has been transforming into KAMMI (Indonesian Muslim Actions Unions), and Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and Dewan Dakwah Islamiyah Indonesia (Indonesian Islamic Propagation Council) as the continuity movement from Masyumi as Islamic political party during the Sukarno presidency. Even though these Islamic resurgence movements are significant, they have had varying impacts on particular countries due to differing power structures of administration in Southeast Asian Muslim societies dealing with the governments’ policies. In Malaysia and Indonesia as a part of the government’s negotiation with the huge niche of this Islamic market created by Islamic resurgence, for instance, Islamic popular culture had begun to develop significantly in the 1990s in forms including Islamic public sermons on television, the presence of Islamic publishers, and the new style of headscarf initiated by young Muslim designers. Islamic pop culture is seen today in the influence of Muslim figures as a part of their Islamic preaching, capitalist industries that commodify Islamic symbols and practices, and political parties seeking to win local and national elections.