Routledge Islam in Modern Thailand: Faith, Philanthropy and Politics (Routledge Contemporary Southeast Asia Series)

This book addresses the complexity of Islam in Thailand, by focusing on Islamic charities and institutions affiliated to the mosque. By extrapolating through Islam and the waqf (Islamic charity) in different regions of Thailand the diversity in races and institutions, it demonstrates the regional contrasts within Thai Islam. The book also underlines the importance of the internal histories of these separate spaces, and the processes by which institutions and ideologies become entrenched. It goes on to look at the socio economic transformation that is taking place within the context of trading networks through Islamic institutions and civil networks linked to mosques, madrasahs and regional power brokers. Brown casts this study of private Islamic welfare as strengthening rather than weakening relations with the secular Thai state. The current regime’s effectiveness in coopting these Muslim elites, including Lutfi and Wisoot, into state bureaucracies assists in widening their popular base in the south, in the north-east, and in Bangkok. Such appointments were efficacious in reinforcing the elite’s Islamic identity within a modern, secular, literate, and cosmopolitan Thai culture. In challenging existing studies of Thai Muslims as furtive protest minorities, this book diverts our attention to how Islamic philanthropy provides the logic and dynamism behind the creation of autonomous spaces for these independent groups, affording unusual insights into their economic, political and social histories. Review 'The title of this scholarly and detailed work promises an examination of Islam everywhere in Thailand, not just in the South. This is what we get in a book focused on Islamic charities and institutions affiliated to the mosque, including the operations of the waaf (Muslim religious foundation). [...] Perhaps the main virtue of Brown's book is that it enables us to see the Muslim South in a wider context. And the challenge to McCargo's thesis at least makes us test afresh our own assumptions about the situation.' – Barney Smith, Asian Affairs, July 2014 About the Author Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown is an Emeritus Professor at the Royal Holloway College in London, UK.