‘The New Global Politics of Religion’: religious harmony, public order, and securitisation in the post-colony

Abstract

This article explores key concepts in legal reasoning on the issue of 'religious harmony' in Malaysia. It argues that the concept of religious harmony belongs to the realm of public order, and public order is indexed to the legal logic of internal security. In Malaysian legal reasoning, the genealogy of these concepts runs through India and the United Kingdom. Arguments for religious freedom based upon normative commitments to liberal rights do not take into account the institutional and legal logic of internal security, within which toleration has different stakes and meanings. When resources are deployed to support the state governance of religion in service of international security concerns, they further consolidate the confluence of internal security and religious harmony, often at the expense of religious minorities. Through a tracing of the reasoning and references of judges and litigants in a series of judgements on the uses of the word 'Allah' by Christians in Malaysia, this article details a post-colonial genealogy of religious harmony through concerns not for toleration or liberty, but for order.

The costs of recognition: global politics, religion, and the colonial history of South Asia

“…For Cohn colonialism was an ontological and epistemological project, its ways of knowing were its ways of governing. 105 Abeysekara 2002;Povinelli 2002;Roy 2004;Devji 2007;Mufti 2007;Adcock 2010;Bender and Klassen 2010;Batnitzky 2011;Dressler and Mandair 2011;Fadil 2011;Jansen 2011;Mahmood 2012;Hussin 2016Hussin , 2018Salomon 2016;Aydin 2017;Marzouki 2017;Ingram 2018;Sullivan 2018Sullivan (2005. ask: how did the conceptual apparatus of religion develop to describe minorities, borders, and conflicts?…”

“… 4 Hurd 2015; Sullivan et al 2015; Mahmood 2016; Årsheim 2018; Hussin 2018; Hartikainen 2019; Birnbaum 2020.…”

“… 105 Abeysekara 2002; Povinelli 2002; Roy 2004; Devji 2007; Mufti 2007; Adcock 2010; Bender and Klassen 2010; Batnitzky 2011; Dressler and Mandair 2011; Fadil 2011; Jansen 2011; Mahmood 2012; Hussin 2016, 2018; Salomon 2016; Aydin 2017; Marzouki 2017; Ingram 2018; Sullivan 2018 (2005).…”