Publication

This paper is the first of two which address the often sharply differing situations faced by Shi'ites in Southeast Asia. The author explains that political events such as the Iranian nuclear crisis and the unsettled fate of post-Saddam Iraq have resulted in a renewed interest in the Shi'ite dimension of Islam in Southeast Asia. He argues that a better understanding of Shi'ite Islam - a minority among Southeast Asian Muslims - might be beneficial in order to arrive at a more differentiated picture of contemporary Southeast Asian Islam. This paper focuses on facets of Shi'ite Islam in Thailand and Indonesia.