Islam and the State in Myanmar: Muslim-Buddhist Relations and the Politics of Belonging

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It gives me great pleasure to write this foreword for a fascinating book edited by Melissa Crouch, which is the result of a workshop held in January 2014 on 'Islam, Law and the State in Myanmar', at the Faculty of Law, the National University of Singapore. I would like to congratulate her for publishing this timely book based on the research papers presented at the workshop. Her book will be remembered as a pioneering work in view of the current lack of reliable sources and empirical research on this subject.

One important aspect that this volume bears testimony to is the history of Islam in Myanmar. It is well-known that Islam has existed as one of the religions of the communities in Myanmar since as early as 800 AD. The Kings of the ancient kingdoms of Myanmar not only recognized Islam as a religion, but also appointed Muslims in the royal service and in special units of the army due to their loyalty in service. There are historical records that Myanmar Kings even appointed top Muslim scholars as chief Muftis (religious decisionmakers) to decide disputes between Muslim subjects according to Islamic Law (Shariah).

This volume also captures the consolidation of Islamic Law through state institutions in Myanmar. During the colonial era, the British authorities, as was the practice in other Southeast Asian colonies, allowed the people of Myanmar to practice their own religious or customary laws in personal matters. Personal laws were officially recognized by the British colonial authorities through the Burma Laws Act 1898, section 13(1), which provides for Muhammadan law. I have argued, however, that the terms 'Muhammadan' and 'Muhammadan law' were mainly used by Anglo-Indian writers and also the British colonial government, and that the Burma Laws Act should be revised to replace the term 'Muhammadan law' with 'Islamic law' and 'Muhammadans' with 'Muslims'.

The Burma Laws Act is the authority for the legal existence of personal laws in Myanmar. In so far as Islamic law is concerned, the two main sources for the Myanmar courts to apply are legislation and case law. According to the common law tradition, Myanmar courts normally follow previous judicial decisions, and the courts in Myanmar have applied Islamic law to decide personal law disputes if the parties are Muslims. Islamic law can be found in the contents of every publication of Burma (Myanmar) Law Reports. However, it is noteworthy that if one of the parties is a Buddhist woman, the Buddhist Women's Special Marriage and Succession Act 1954 and the Buddhist Women's Special Marriage Act 50/2015 prevails over any contrary law.

Despite the restrictions and limitations felt by Muslims under the current government, Islamic law has long been recognized by the state as the personal law for Muslims in Myanmar during the colonial time, after independence, and even under the military regime. Today, Islam is one of the religions officially recognized in the 2008 Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. However, due to recent widespread violence against Muslims in Myanmar, as captured in several of the chapters in this volume, there are serious concerns that Muslims will not be able to practise their own religion freely or apply their own personal law any more. It is hoped that the Government of Myanmar will continue to practise the tradition of allowing Muslims in the country to freely practise their religion and recognize Islamic law to be applicable in courts if the parties are Muslims.

This book is a significant and timely contribution to our under-standing of Muslim communities in Myanmar, and it will provide a solid foundation for future research in this area.

This edited volume explores the relation between Islam and the state in Myanmar from both an empirical and comparative perspective. It provides an informed and scholarly response to con-temporary issues facing the Muslim communities of Myanmar by furthering knowledge of the dynamics and the interaction between state institutions, government policies and Muslim communities. This volume addresses the lacuna of informed and contemporary scholarship in this area. This is important because recent events demonstrate a profound lack of understanding about Muslims and Islam in Myanmar. For example, a gap between local discourse and international rhetoric has surfaced in debates over the anti-Muslim violence that began in Rakhine State in 2012 but spread to most major towns across Myanmar. This is most evident in comments directed at Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, member of parliament and of the National League for Democracy (NLD), and her response to the situation. From the side of the Myanmar government, there have been repeated attempts to discredit her because of her alleged links to and sympathy for Muslims in Myanmar. On the other hand, the international community has expressed profound disappointment, and at times, outrage, concerning Daw Suu's perceived failure to speak out in sup-port of Muslims and the Rohingya in particular. I give this example not as a reflection on Aung San Suu Kyi or the policies of the NLD, but as an example that illustrates both the gulf in local and international perceptions about Muslims, as well as a misunderstanding of the Muslim community in Myanmar.

In order to build a new body of scholarship on the Muslims of Myanmar, this volume is broadly oriented around a series of questions about the politics of belonging and how Muslims interact with, or distance themselves from, the state in a Buddhist-majority society. It explores how Muslims understand their own identity and their position in relation to the state, how we can conceptualize the relation between Muslim communities and the state in Myanmar, and what function and position religious institutions have in Muslim communities in Myanmar. This volume also examines how government policies affect the status and freedom of Muslims, and the agency and influence that Muslims have in this period of transition in Myanmar.

Further, this volume investigates the way the state has regulated the Muslim community, and the implications of state policies for Muslims. This relates to a wide range of issues such as marriage, divorce, and inheritance; Islamic education; places of worship; the role of religious leaders; as well as broader social issues such as the rapid growth in communications technology, and access to employment opportunities. The chapters in this volume consider how the state regulates the practice and expression of Islam, and how this has varied during different political and military regimes in Myanmar.

It considers how the state has legitimized its policies and the extent to which it has enforced these regulations and laws. This leads to broader questions about whether the approach of the state towards Muslims is similar to or different from the way in which it regulates other minority groups or the way in which other countries in the region deal with minority Muslim communities.

This volume aims to reinvigorate scholarship on Islam in Myanmar, to explore the diversity within the Muslim community, and to bring a scholarly perspective and insight into complex issues raised by the position of Muslims where they form a minority in states across Asia. It brings together a range of scholars from Burma Studies to Islamic studies, from a diverse array of disciplines-religious studies, international relations, political science, history, Islamic studies, law, and anthropology. Importantly, it also features a number of chapters by Muslim scholars from Myanmar, some based in Myanmar while others are based abroad, and who represent a diverse range of ethnic backgrounds.

This book has been preceded by a preface from Professor Abdul Ghafur Hamid, who is the leading Burmese professor on Islamic law. Previously a lecturer at the law departments of the University of Yangon, East Yangon University and Mandalay University, he is currently a professor at the International Islamic University, Malaysia. He is the author of a book on Islamic law (in Burmese), which was revised and republished in 2014 by the Islamic Religious Affairs Council in Myanmar.

The volume begins in Chapter 1 with an overview of the literature on Islam and Muslims in Myanmar that is designed to orient readers to this emerging area of research. Crouch identifies four key areas for inquiry, illustrating the importance of these areas with profiles from her own field research. She challenges scholars to participate in and contribute to this new area of inquiry in a way that is both conscious to avoid stereotypes of Islam and Buddhism, while also ensuring that the Muslims of Myanmar are not studied in isolation but are incorporated into global discussions about the past and present dynamics between Islam and the state.