This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the growing role of Islam in the last quarter century of Malaysian politics. While conventional wisdom suggests that the ruling UMNO party moved toward Islamism as a reaction to the more heavily Islamist opposition party, PAS, Stephen Liow argues that the UMNO has, in fact, often taken the lead in moving toward Islamism, and PAS has often been forced to react. The result, Liow argues, is a game of "piety-trumping" that will be very difficult to reverse, and that has dire consequences not only for the ethnic and religious minorities of Malaysia, but for their democratic system as a whole.

Preface
Acknowledgements
Table of Contents
Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter One: Genesis of an Islamist Agenda
Chapter Two: The Malaysian State and the Bureaucratization of Islam
Chapter Three: Reconstructing and Reinforcing Islamism
Chapter Four: "Popular" Political Islam: Representations and Discourses
Chapter Five: "Securing" Islam in a Time of Turbulence
Conclusion
Epilogue
Notes
Glossary
Selected Bibliography
Index