Islam, society and political behaviour: some comparative implications of the Malay case

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Category: Religion

Published: Saturday, 23 August 2008 04:35

Posted by Kessler, Clive S.

The article presents a discussion on Islam, society and political behaviour by considering the case of the West Malaysian state of Kelantan. Religion, like myth, turns often upon the relation between morality and reality. Thus many religiously inspired world views, and especially those of the universalistic religions, are in tension with social reality. A collision occurs between the exhortation towards the behavioral requisites of an ennobling vision of the human situation and the facts of human social experience, and its impact is felt in the steering-mechanism of individual behaviour. Sociologically it can be argued that despite the traditional Islamic prescription that political authority must implement institutions in accordance with legal-religious theory, there is no reason why an injunction that there should be a close relationship between theory and practice must necessarily produce a greater effect on political behaviour. [Download]