Malaysian Islamic Party PAS 1951-2013

The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party PAS is the biggest opposition party in Malaysia today and one of the most prominent Islamist parties in Southeast Asia. This work recounts the historical development of PAS from 1951 to the present, and looks at how it has risen to become a political movement that is both local and transnational, tracking its rise from the Cold War to the age of the War on Terror, and its evolving ideological postures - from anti-colonialism to post-revolutionary Islamism, as the party adapted itself to the realities of the postmodern global age. PAS's long engagement with modernity and its nuanced approach to the goal of state capture is the focus of this work, as it recounts the story of the Islamist party and Malaysia by extension.Download the Table of Contents and Introduction

'One of the major strengths of the volume is simply the huge amount of new information presented here about the historical origins of PAS, its important political leaders and personalities, and insider information regarding internal conflicts between moderates and hardliners ... Noor’s great contribution is to provide context for this new intriguing political development in contemporary Malaysia, appreciating that Islamism in Malaysia is a dynamic movement, not monolithic or unchanging.' - Trevor. W. Preston, Centennial College, Toronto, Canada, Pacific Affairs: Volume 90, No. 2 - June 2017. 'Noor's book is perhaps the most comprehensive study of Malaysia's Pan-Islamic Party to date, and as such it is a must-read not just for Malaysianists but for all interested in Islamist political parties.' -Jason Abbott, University of Louisville, South East Asia Research 23 (2), June 2015 'Noor has provided us with a beautifully-written overview of the history of PAS, from its humble beginnings as a spin-off of UMNO in the 1950s through the 13th General Election in 2013.' - Kevin W. Fogg, University of Oxford, Aseasuk News no, 57 Spring 2015 'Farish's richly documented work relate the shifts in PAS's counter-hegemonic discourse and practice - passing through leftist and Malay communalist phases to various styles of Islamism - to the wider political context, both national and international. This is without a doubt the best study of PAS that has appeared to date, and at the same time a social and political history of independent Malaysia seen from the margins. It is essential reading not only for those who wish to understand Malaysian politics, but also for students of contemporary Islamist movements. PAS is one of the most important religio-political movements in the Muslim world today, comparable to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Pakistan's Jama'at-e Islami and Turkey's succession of Islamist parties, but with a history and character of its own. This book deserves a place beside the best studies of those better-known movements.' - Prof Martin van Bruinessen, Utrecht University

Farish A. Noor is Professor of Southeast Asian History at the Faculty of Arts, University Malaya.