Appropriations of human rights discourses: Evidence from Indonesia and Malaysia

Abstract Scholarship on human rights has evolved considerably, shifting away from the notion of universal norms toward understanding human rights as socially constructed and politically contingent. This article contributes to this literature by examining how Islamist activists in Indonesia and Malaysia appropriate and reframe human rights rhetoric to advance their agendas. Drawing on fieldwork, interviews, and discourse analysis, we illustrate how Islamist majoritarians in both countries strategically deploy human rights language to promote their causes. In Malaysia, state actors have positioned human rights as antithetical to their illiberal variant of Islam, portraying them as a Western imposition. Conversely, Indonesian Islamists engage with human rights discourse, albeit selectively, reinterpreting certain elements to align with their illiberal perspectives while maintaining resonance within public discourse. This article departs from analyses focused on norm diffusion, instead providing a comparative examination of the appropriation of human rights language in local contexts. By focusing on the rising importance of religion in politics, particularly in debates surrounding religious freedom, we shed light on the intersection between human rights discourse and Islamist agendas in Indonesia and Malaysia. Our findings highlight the nuanced ways in which actors navigate and manipulate human rights rhetoric to serve their interests. Ultimately, this study enriches our understanding of the complex dynamics surrounding human rights discourse in non-Western contexts and underscores the need for contextualized analyses of rights appropriation in diverse sociopolitical landscapes.