THE POLITICAL ORIGINS OF ISLAMIC COURTS IN DIVIDED SOCIETIES: THE CASE OF MALAYSIA

The way in which Islamic courts and laws are developed and how religious legal apparatuses shape the relations between—and within—religious communities has been a common source of debate among scholars. This article analyzes the growing institutional power and authority of Islamic courts and judges in Malaysia since the late 1980s to contribute to this theoretical debate. Specifically, it compares two critical phases of institutional development of Islamic courts in Malaysia's largely secular judicial system: the first under the premiership of Mahathir Mohamad before the dismissal of his deputy, Anwar Ibrahim (1980–1998), and the second under the post-reformasi (reform) period (1999–present). Original data gathered at the Jabatan Kehakiman Syariah Malaysia (Department of Syariah Judiciary Malaysia) and other government and legal agencies, fieldwork, and semistructured interviews with Islamic and civil court officials both at the federal and state levels document the institutional expansion and administrative independence that the Islamic courts and judges have successively gained in relation to their civil counterparts. It is argued that the gradual bureaucratization of Islamic courts can best be explained with reference to the interests—and strategic coalitions—of political and religious elites within the majority community to sustain a dominant regime and majoritarian rule based on communal identity.