Conflict, Religion and Culture: domestic and Regional Implications for Southeast Asia and Australia

Luca Anceschi, Joseph Camilleri and Benjamin Tolosa Jr (eds), Conflict, Religion and Culture: Domestic and Regional Implications for Southeast Asia and Australia, Manila, Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2009, 169 pp.

A collection of selected papers from the international workshop Conflict, Religion, and Culture: Domestic and International Implications for Southeast Asia and Australia, held in Manila in August 2007. Since 9/11 much has been written about U.S. and European responses to terrorism, to Iraq and Afghanistan, and to tensions between Islam and the West. But countries in Asia Pacific have attracted much less attention -- yet their responses reveal much not only about their respective foreign policies, but also about their internal electoral politics, the tensions of plural societies, the sway of ethnic-cultural stereotypes, the perceived sociopolitical roles that religions play, the conditioning of the mass media, and the international implications of internal armed conflicts. Mindful of the interconnections between the global and the local, and their impact on different policy areas, the authors of this collection examine contemporary developments in four multiethnic, multifaith societies, which are also significant middle powers in Asia Pacific: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Australia. 

The key questions addressed in this book are: To what extent have state responses to the War on Terror been shaped by domestic politics? How do Muslim political leaders position themselves vis-à-vis the United States and their own domestic constituencies? What has been the role of Islam in relation to internal ethnic tensions where it is the majority religion and where it is the minority religion? To what extent is the conflict in the southern Philippines a reflection of historic grievances, localized feuds, and global fault lines? 

Introduction / Joseph A. Camilleri and Luca Anceschi --

Appropriating terror in the Arroyo Administration: radicalizing state-civil society relations / Maria Elissa Jayme Lao and Jennifer Santiago Oreta --

Australia's response to tensions between Islam and the West since 9/11: the Howard Government's Legacy / Michális S. Michael --

Anchoring ties in waves of change: Malaysia's evolving relations with the West / Elina Noor -

The Australian media's teatment of Muslims, Post-11 September 2001 / George Myconos --

Islam and Anti-Americanism in today's Indonesia / Jajat Burjanudin and Dadi Darmadi --

Deconstructing indentity: ethnicity, religion, and intercommunal relations in Malaysia / Elina Noor --

Religion and the conventional understanding of the Mindanao conflict/ Zainudin S. Malang --

Locating triggers, reducing domestic tensions : community-based conflict management and the prospects for peace in the Southern Philippines / Alber A. Husin.