ABSTRACT
Introduction As we indicated in the opening chapter, Malay-Muslims in Singapore, as a community, have been criticized for their failure to integrate; the state has been worried that Muslims, owing to their religiosity, have been ‘distancing’ themselves from the rest of society. What is interesting is that this situation is not new to the Muslim community; indeed, there has been a ‘Malay problem’ in Singapore for 30 years. Still, there is something different about the current situation, which we believe is due to the increased significance of religion, both from the perspective of the state as well as from Muslims themselves in the past decade. As such, what was once the ‘Malay problem’ has evolved into the ‘Malay-Muslim problem’, with some aspects remaining the same, and some new aspects being introduced. This chapter provides a brief background to the Malay community of Singapore and then proceeds to a discussion of the so-called ‘Malay problem’ of the past three decades. We will then consider the rise of piety among Muslims in Singapore in the context of an Islamic revival throughout the region and show how an ethnic problem eventually became a religious problem.
