Once a Muslim, Always a Muslim: The Politics of State Enforcement ofSyariahin Contemporary Malaysia

It is commonly assumed that greater enforcement of Syariah Islamic law is the result of growing Islamism in civil society and/or the state. This article investigates the most burning political issue relating to the state enforcement of Syariah in contemporary Malaysia, that of apostasy. The author argues that it is the electoral imperative of the secular Muslim ruling elites, especially prime ministers, to cultivate broader support to achieve political survival, not only among their traditional power base in the rural Muslim constituencies, as is conventionally argued, but equally importantly among the urban non-Muslim (especially Chinese) constituencies, which has also conditioned the state enforcement of Syariah. The author's findings from Malaysia and observations on Indonesia further suggest that electoral competitiveness – rather than authoritarianism or theocracy – conditions state enforcement of Syariah, contrary to expectations.