Introduction

Events since 11 September 2001 have dramatically altered the political environment in the Muslim world, and in Southeast Asia in particular. The divide has sharpened between the West and its secular values and institutions and the world of militant Islam and, within the Muslim world, between moderates and radicals. This paper examines trends in Southeast Asian Islam over the last two decades, the impact of the US-led war on terrorism and the policies that Southeast Asian governments, the US and other Western countries could pursue to strengthen moderate and tolerant tendencies within Southeast Asian Islam.