Shapers of Islam in Southeast Asia

Muslim Litfest 2023

For a long time, Southeast Asian Muslim communities were considered to be at the margins of Islamic learning and culture, far from the regions conventionally viewed as the “core” of the Muslim world. In recent years, the archipelago has become increasingly closely connected with the rest of the global Muslim community, thanks to a range of high-profile scholars and thinkers who have left an indelible mark on Islamic intellectual movements.

In this talk, Khairudin Aljunied will explain how several Southeast Asian Muslim intellectuals have been especially innovative in giving rise to what could be termed as the “Islamic reformist mosaic.” These intellectuals have developed a unified and coherent frame of thought that distinguishes itself from the ultra-traditionalist and ultra-secularist leanings that have shaped much of the discussions regarding Islam from the mid-twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

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Professor Khairudin Aljunied (PhD SOAS, London) was Professor and Former Deputy Director of the Sultan Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Centre for Islamic Studies at the University of Brunei Darussalam. He is also a Senior Fellow (previously Malaysia Chair of Islam in Southeast Asia) at the Alwaleed Centre for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University. Aljunied is the author of a number of books, among the recent ones are Shapers of Islamic Thought in Southeast Asia (Oxford University Press, 2023). His specialization is on the social and intellectual histories of Islam in Southeast Asia. He is currently writing his new book entitled Sufism in Southeast Asia: A Biography (London: Oneworld Publications).