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ASIA’S POST-9/11 MUSLIM MINORITIES:
ENDANGERED SPECIES?
Abstract:
With Muslims under the gun worldwide, how are they holding up in their
continent of origin--Asia? In particular, what new
constraints and opportunities do Muslim minorities face
across Asia?
Surveying four dimensions of the Muslim fate
today (relevant historical backdrop, nature of current
tensions, distinguishing between a variety of Muslim
groups, and the post-9/11 predicament) in a dozen-odd
countries, a study of Muslim minorities discovers five
areas of Islam-related discontinuities (with Buddhism,
Christianity, Hinduism, communism, and self-identity),
and three countries as obvious battlegrounds (Myanmar,
the Philippines, and Thailand). In proposing a number of
non-zero-sum recommendations, the plausible roles three
of the four largest Muslim countries in the world (Bangladesh,
India, and Indonesia) and Malaysia might play acquire
critical proportions. Unfolding developments dictate
what these may be, but the implications of throwing the
9/11 monkey off the back of ordinary Muslims necessitate
the kind of adjustments as monumental as in Europe’s 16th
Reformation, but unlike its European counterpart,
without abandoning their religious roots.
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