A Study on the Coexistence of Islam and Civil Values in SoutheastAsian Muslim Society

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The purpose of the research is to explore how the Islamic value is "adjusted" to the modern/civil values and institutionalized in contemporary Malaysia Two concrete subjects are considered in this research. (1) The relation of apostasy in Islamic doctrine with the freedom of religion declared in the Malaysian constitution; (2) the institutionalization of polygamy in each States' enactments.During the three-year research period, I have surveyed all States' enactments concerning Islamic matters and their amendments and also scrutinized some court cases in which the apostasy from Islam and the right of religious freedom are disputed. Along with this I have collected the discourses of Muslim intellectuals, politicians, Islamic and other religious organizations on apostasy and polygamy in today's Malaysia.The research findings can be summarized in the following two points. (1) There are various views on how Islamic value should be adjusted in modern/civil society. Sometimes they conflict and compete with each other. This shows us the diversity of Islam today. (2) Even those of emphasizing Islamic value have to and do consider modern/civil values and the fact that Malaysia is a multi-religious and secular state when they institutionalize the Islamic value. This means that the Islamic value is always relativised to be actually institutionalized. These research findings are discussed in detail in Tawada 2006, 2007, 2008.In addition to the research in Malaysia, I have tried to analyze the institutionalization of Islam in Singapore and Thailand from the same point of view, but these are still in preliminary stage.