When Osama and friends came a-calling: the political deployment of the overdetermined image of Osama ben Laden in the contestation for Islamic symbols in Malaysia FA RISH A . NOOR

This chapter looks at how the image of Osama ben Laden and the Taliban movement of Afghanistan have come to play such an important role in the local political dynamics of present-day Malaysia. Its historical focus is the period from 2000 to the present, when the figure of Osama ben Laden came into popular public view in the political arena, and the analysis offered is set against the backdrop of the Islamization race in Malaysia, which has been rooted in the intra-communal struggle for the control and representation of the Malay-Muslim majority in the country.