Muslim Piety as Economy: Markets, Meaning and Morality in Southeast Asia

257 Pages·2019·4.349 MB·English

by  Johan Fischer, Jérémy Jammes

‘This new volume substantially expands current conversations beyond dominant
discourses of Islamic economy and its technical focus on financial instruments,
to broader critical engagements with market regulation, public policy, and sym-
bolic communication through examinations of contemporary halal discourses
that transcend formalistic understandings of “shari’a compliance” to more com-
plex dynamics across the interlinked spheres of governance, finance, fashion and
family life.”
– R. Michael Feener, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies,
University of Oxford, UK
‘This superb volume brings together experienced scholars in sciences, social sci-
ences and Islamic studies to examine contemporary developments around halal
standards in Southeast Asia. Few treatments of this topic succeed as this one does
in both ranging broadly – from economics to colonial history to fiction – and
plunging in depth – especially into biology and genetics.’
– John R. Bowen, Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor,
Washington University in St. Louis, USA
‘Over the past generation, many Muslim-majority societies have experienced a
revival in religious observance at the same time as they have witnessed unprec-
edented levels of market growth. The changes have been nowhere more
transformative than in the Muslim-majority societies of Southeast Asia. This
meticulously researched and highly original book brings together some of the
finest scholarship on Islam and economic change in Muslim Southeast Asia, and
offers rich insight into one of the most distinctive but little-studied features of
Muslim modernity.’
– Robert W. Hefner, Pardee School of Global Affairs, Boston University, USA
‘An unrivalled and thoroughly documented investigation of Muslim Southeast
Asia, indispensable to the understanding of one of the most remarkable and
comprehensive transformations of Islam in recent decades: the emergence of
Muslim piety as an economic system unto itself.’
– Rémy Madinier, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France
‘A more informed analysis and understanding of Islam and Muslims in Southeast
Asia and their contemporary articulations must be embedded in the histori-
cal reality of plurality, plural society and diversity templates that become the
mould of social life in the region. In equal measure, any attempt to explain and
analyse recent major developments of Islamic economy in the region must be
embedded not only in its historical reality but also in the reality of its pluralistic
capitalist economy, in which formal and substantive economies are enmeshed.
This book, Muslim Piety as Economy: Markets, Meaning and Morality in Southeast,
arguably is the first that has successfully captured both of the “embedisation
processes” grounded in impressive empirical evidence. It is a must-read for
anyone interested in contemporary articulation of Islamic economy in the vast
maritime-riverine complex, called the Malay world, that constitutes the major
component of Southeast Asia.’
– Shamsul A.B., Distinguished Professor and UNESCO Chair
(Communications & Social Cohesion) at
The National University of Malaysia, Malaysia

Muslim Piety as Economy
The first volume to explore Muslim piety as a form of economy, this book
examines specific forms of production, trade, regulation, consumption,
entrepreneurship and science that condition – and are themselves conditioned
by – Islamic values, logics and politics. With a focus on Southeast Asia as
a site of significant and diverse integration of Islam and the economy – as
well as the incompatibilities that can occur between the two – it reveals the
production of a Muslim piety as an economy in its own right. Interdisciplinary
in nature and based on in-depth empirical studies, the book considers issues
such as the Qur’anic prohibition of corruption and anti-corruption reforms;
the emergence of the Islamic economy under colonialism; ‘halal’ or ‘lawful’
production, trade, regulation and consumption; modesty in Islamic fashion
marketing communications; and financialisation, consumerism and housing.
As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology, anthropology and religious
studies with interests in Islam and Southeast Asia.
Johan Fischer is Associate Professor in the Department of Social Sciences and
Business at Roskilde University, Denmark. He is the author of Proper Islamic
Consumption: Shopping among the Malays in Modern Malaysia; The Halal Frontier:
Muslim Consumers in a Globalized Market; Islam, Standards, and Technoscience: In
Global Halal Zones; Halal Matters: Islam, Politics and Markets in Global Perspective;
Religion, Regulation, Consumption: Globalising Kosher and Halal Markets; and
Kosher and Halal Business Compliance.
Jérémy Jammes is Associate Professor at the research Institute of Asian Studies
at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Brunei. He is the author of Les oracles du
Cao Đài. Étude d’un mouvement religieux vietnamien et de ses réseaux and Chrétiens
évangéliques d’Asie du Sud-Est. Expériences locales d’une ferveur conquérante, and was
Deputy Director of the French Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast
Asia (IRASEC) from 2010 to 2014.
Studies in Material Religion and Spirituality
Series Editors
Julius Bautista, Kyoto University, Japan
Johan Fischer, Roskilde University, Denmark
Jérémy Jammes, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Brunei
This series welcomes scholarly monographs and edited collections that explore
the social, cultural and economic relationship between religion, materiality and
spirituality. This series invites cutting-edge scholarly work that critically and
imaginatively explores these transformations globally. Focused on contemporary
issues and grounded in strong empirical, ethnographic and archival work,
volumes in the series speak to multiple audiences in the social sciences disciplines,
including anthropology, history, sociology, political science, cultural studies,
global studies and area studies, moving beyond well-established paradigms to
explore the reconfiguration of material religion and spirituality in the era of
globalised production, trade, regulation and consumption.
Muslim Piety as Economy
Markets, Meaning and Morality in Southeast Asia
Edited by Johan Fischer and Jérémy Jammes
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/
Studies-in-Material-Religion-and-Spirituality/book-series/SMRS
Muslim Piety as Economy
Markets, Meaning and Morality in
Southeast Asia
Edited by Johan Fischer and
Jérémy Jammes
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 selection and editorial matter, Johan Fischer and Jérémy Jammes;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Johan Fischer and Jérémy Jammes to be identified as the
authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-367-33668-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-32114-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
Contents
List of figures ix
List of tables x
List of contributors xi
Acknowledgements xiii
1 Introduction: Muslim Piety as Economy: Markets, Meaning
and Morality in Southeast Asia 1
JOHAN FISCHER AND JÉRÉMY JAMMES
2 Social trust, the Qur’anic prohibition of corruption, and
anti-corruption reforms in Indonesia 29
MICHEL DION
3 Muhammadiyah, membership dues and the Islamic
economy in colonial Aceh 53
JOSHUA GEDACHT
4 Brunei Halal certification: A review and way forward 75
NAZLIDA MUHAMAD, MASAIROL HJ MASRI, AND AHMED MASOOD KHALID
5 Consumer goods and the role of science in the halal
industry in Southeast Asia 101
NURA FAZIRA NOOR AZAM, SYAZANA ABDULLAH LIM,
NUR DIYANAH MATASSAN AND MINHAZ UDDIN AHMED
6 Contamination of halal food products: Insights on
theological rulings 129
AHMAD LABEEB TAJUDEEN AND IBRAHIM ABDUL-RAHMAN
viii C ontents
7 Middle-class projects in modern Malaysia and beyond 149
JOHAN FISCHER
8 Modesty in Islamic fashion marketing communications
in ASEAN 169
MUHAMMAD TALHA SALAM, NAZLIDA BINTI MUHAMAD AND VAI SHIEM LEONG
9 Packaging MIB: Representations of Islam in
Anglophone Bruneian fiction 193
KATHRINA MOHD DAUD
10 Tales from two cities: Financialisation, consumerism and
affordable housing in Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta 211
LENA RETHEL, JUANITA ELIAS AND LISA TILLEY
11 Afterword: Contemporary halal tropism, or Islam and
economy between the global and the traditional era 229
JÉRÉMY JAMMES AND JOHAN FISCHER
Index 239
Figures
4.1 Southeast Asia trademarks and halal certified logos 77
4.2 Bruneian authorities in charge of the Halal Food Control
Division (2018) 85
5.1 Simplified procedures for the production and packaging
of halal foods 103
5.2 DNA-based methods 113
5.3 Modification and immobilisation procedures of the reported
immunosensor 115
8.1 A multidimensional review of the research and three main sections 171
8.2 Revised conceptualisation to reflect influence of religion
on Islamic Fashion 186
10.1 Value of residential property transactions, 2001–2016,
in RM million 218