Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM) (Islamic Studies)

Introduction

Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia, or Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (ABIM), was formed on 6 August 1971 by the Faculty of Islamic Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia). It held its first Muktamar (annual general meeting) in 1972. The movement was initially characterized by efforts to coordinate intensify Muslim youth activism, and its outreach focused primarily on educational activities. In the 1980s, ABIM began developing several vehicles for both missionary and economic outreach, including primary and secondary schools. Overseas activism became a feature of ABIM’s outreach in the 1990s as the organization involved itself in mission and humanitarian work in countries such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Several former leaders of ABIM are now prominent politicians in Malaysia, including former Deputy Prime Minister and current Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) leader Anwar Ibrahim, and Parti Islam Se-Malaysia’s (PAS) president Abdul Hadi Awang. As a youth organization that was established in the early 1970s at the height of the global Islamic resurgence, ABIM was very much a product of its time. Against the backdrop of a staunchly secular government and an increasingly nationalist Islamist opposition political party (PAS), ABIM sought to fill a gap by providing an avenue for the expression of Islamic ideals among Malaysia’s Muslim majority community. ABIM managed to enhance its religious legitimacy and gain international recognition by maintaining excellent relations with Islamic countries of both Sunni and Shiʿite persuasion (see International Relations). Domestically, they became one of the more significant religious pressure groups, and their popularity among grassroots and tertiary education institutions meant that their members and leaders were also courted by the main Malay-Muslim political parties, United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and PAS. ABIM’s membership has grown steadily over the years. At its formation, it had a few hundred members. From there it grew to seven thousand in 1972, thirty-five thousand in 1980, and sixty thousand in 2001. Although ABIM enjoys support from urban Malays and Malay students in tertiary education institutions in Malaysia and abroad, its influence is considerably weaker among rural Malays.

General Overviews

There have been very few detailed studies that have focused exclusively on ABIM. Monutty 1990—a doctoral dissertation—remains by far the most comprehensive scholarly treatment of this organization, certainly in the English language, focusing on its origins and impact among Malay-Muslims. Malay scholarship of ABIM is a shade better in terms of quantity, with a major study produced in Tahir 1993, which focuses attention on the role of ex-ABIM president Anwar Ibrahim and the splits within the organization that resulted from his departure to join the main Malay-Muslim political party in Malaysia, United Malays National Organization (UMNO). This book also details the political choices and careers of Anwar’s ABIM contemporaries such as Abdul Hadi Awang and Fadzil Noor, both of whom joined the opposition Islamist party, Islamist opposition political party (PAS), and rose to become presidents in the party. For the most part, scholarship on ABIM takes the form of sections and chapters in articles and book chapters on the broader theme of Islamic civil society and NGO activism in Malaysia. Such works include Hussein 1998, which explores the transformation of ABIM from an overt Malay-Muslim pressure group under Anwar to the welfare and humanitarian organization that it was in the 1990s. Pithy overviews of ABIM are also available in Jomo and Cheek 1992, Salleh 1998, and Hassan 2003. Many of these works establish the point that central to the rise of ABIM was the emergence of an Islamic segment within the Malay middle-class by the mid-1970s, which included tertiary education students. ABIM positioned itself as a movement of the young, educated, Muslim middle class in order to leverage on (as well as facilitate) social activism and mobilization among this segment of the community. A further recurring theme in many studies on ABIM is the role of Anwar Ibrahim, former ABIM president and former Malaysian deputy prime minister. Most scholars of ABIM also point to the fact that the leadership provided by Anwar Ibrahim was crucial to establishing the organization as a major entity on the Malaysian civil society and political scene.

Funston, Neil J. “The Politics of Islamic Reassertion: Malaysia.” In Readings on Islam in Southeast Asia. Edited by Ibrahim, Ahmad, Sharon Siddique, and Yasmin Hussain, 171–179. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1985.
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A dated but useful snapshot of the rise of Islamic civil society movements in Malaysia, which also captures the origins of ABIM.
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Hassan, Saliha. “Islamic Non-Governmental Organisations.” In Social Movements in Malaysia: From Moral Communities to NGOs. Edited by Meredith L. Weiss and Saliha Hassan, 97–114. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
DOI: 10.4324/9780203220498Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This chapter contains sections on the dakwah movement and ABIM. It highlights the connection between the two and looks at ABIM’s early confrontational politics as well as its opposition to Malaysia’s corporate subculture.
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Hussein, Syed Ahmed. Muslim Politics in Malaysia: Origins and Evolution of Competing Traditions in Malaysian Islam. FGD Occasional Paper No. 15. Braamfontein, South Africa: Foundation for Global Dialogue, 1998
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A survey of major Islamic civil society organizations and political parties in Malaysia which focuses on their intellectual traditions.
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Jomo, K. S., and Ahmad Shabery Cheek. “Malaysia’s Islamic Movements.” In Fragmented Vision: Culture and Politics in Contemporary Malaysia. Edited by Joel S. Kahn and Francis Loh Kok Wah, 79–105. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1992.
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A concise chapter that contains a section on ABIM up until Anwar’s departure detailing its origins, close working relationship with PAS in the 1970s, the downturn in this relationship in the 1980s, and ABIM’s eventual decline starting in the mid-1980s.
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Monutty, Mohammad Nor. “Perception of Social Change in Contemporary Malaysia: A Critical Analysis of ABIM’s Role and Its Impact among Muslim Youth.” PhD diss., Temple University, 1990.
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The most comprehensive study of ABIM to date. Authored by one of its former presidents, it remains the key point of reference for scholars working on ABIM.
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Salleh, Muhammad Syukri. “Recent Trends in Islamic Revivalism in Malaysia.” Paper presented at the Second International Conference of the European Association for Southeast Asian Studies (EUROSEAS), Hamburg, Germany, 3–6 September 1998.
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This paper details the Malaysian government’s handling of Islamic revivalism that led to the deradicalization of Islamic movements like ABIM but nevertheless also gave rise to the Islamization race.
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Tahir, Mohd Anuar. Pendirian Politik ABIM. Petaling Jaya, Malaysia: Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia, 1993.
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A useful Malay-language book on the development of ABIM and its political positions on a range of social and political issues since their establishment to the early 1990s. (Title translation: ABIM’s political stand.)
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Objectives and Views

Studies of ABIM such as Hamid 2008 and Liow 2009 have drawn attention to the Islamic underpinnings of the organization and its self-declared objective to transmit “a proper understanding of Islam” to Muslim youth in particular and to the Malaysian Muslim population more generally. This point is made clear in Abdullah 2003, which describes ABIM as an Islamic movement which struggles to uphold Islam and quotes ABIM President Siddiq Fadzil’s contention that this struggle is guided by genuine Islamic principles pursued through dakwah and tarbiyah. Muzaffar 1987 argues that ABIM opposes secularism and other Western ideologies on grounds that they are antithetical to the ideals of an Islamic state. Secularism, to ABIM, is an ideology that restricts the concept of existence to “this world” and to the “here and now.” It denies the revelation of God and revelation, and the values and laws emerging from that source, in the growth and development of the individual and society. For Muzaffar 1987, ABIM’s opposition to secularism is further manifested in its regular lament over how the Malaysian economy is overdependent on the international capitalist system, which further aggravates income disparities. While Muzaffar 1987 focuses primarily on the economic and social agendas of ABIM, Nasir 2009 draws out the organization’s Islamist character in sharper relief as it served as an Islamic pressure group and check on the secularist excesses of the Malaysian government. Hussein 1988 pinpoints the small pool of middle-class Malay-Muslims as well as the Malaysian state’s introduction of its own Islamization agenda in the early 1980s as the primary factors accounting for the gradual erosion of ABIM’s influence in national affairs. Meanwhile Lum, et al. 2001 discusses the reception that ABIM’s activism has received among Malaysia’s non-Muslims.

Abdullah, Kamarulnizam. The Politics of Islam in Contemporary Malaysia. Bangi, Malaysia: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 2003.
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This book dedicates a chapter to two of the more established social religious movements in Malaysia: ABIM and Arqam. The chapter provides a good introduction to ABIM and the context and political climate in which it emerged. It discusses its objectives, membership and organizational structure, fundamentals and changes before and after Anwar’s defections, its activities, and similarities and differences with Arqam.
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Hamid, Ahmad Fauzi Abdul. “Islamist Realignments and the Rebranding of the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia.” Contemporary Southeast Asia 30.2 (August 2008): 215–240.
DOI: 10.1355/CS30-2CSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Informative overview of ABIM’s evolution from its establishment in 1971 until its leadership rejuvenation in 2005. The author’s piece on the five phases of postindependence Islamism in Malaysia is a helpful tool in locating some of ABIM’s Islamist leanings and realignments in the complex interplay of relations between the state machinery and civil society. Available online by subscription.
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Hussein, Syed Ahmad. “Islam and Politics in Malaysia, 1969–1982: The Dynamics of Competing Traditions.” PhD diss., Yale University, 1988.
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A survey of Malaysian politics through the lens of Islamic activism, the dissertation nevertheless provides a good discussion on the decline of ABIM, which the author attributes to, first, the movement’s small, urban base, which was limited to the middle classes; and second, the movement’s uphill task against the dominant tradition, which was led by the government, which itself was gearing toward Islamization.
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Liow, Joseph Chinyong. Piety and Politics: Islamism in Contemporary Malaysia. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195377088.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A general study of Islamic political and social movements in Malaysia, this book has one chapter dealing specifically with Islamic civil society, which contains a section that discusses ABIM in relation to other Islamic groups in the country.
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Lum, Chih Feng, Boon Hooi Ng, and Kok Wahying. ABIM: 3 Dekad yang Penuh Dugaan. Petaling Jaya, Malaysia: ABIM, 2001.
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An official ABIM publication mapping three decades of the organization’s activities. It includes a detailed list of past leaders and positions. The book is unique because it was authored by ethnic Chinese Malaysians, who also shared the perception of Chinese community toward ABIM. The book also includes interviews with previous ABIM leaders. (Title translation: ABIM: Three decades of challenges.)
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Muzaffar, Chandra. Islamic Resurgence in Malaysia. Petaling Jaya, Malaysia: Fajar Bakti, 1987.
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The book discusses ABIM’s position on a host of social and economic issues at length. These include ABIM’s views on capitalism, corruption, social ills, and even the Internal Security Act and the deleterious effect of Malay nationalism on Islamic identity.
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Nasir, Badlihisham Mohd. Dinamisme gerakan Islam dan cabaran semasa. Shah Alam, Malaysia: Karisma, 2009.
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Written in the Malay language, this is one of the more recent books on Islamism in Malaysia, with a chapter dedicated to ABIM. It reveals interesting details of the little-known working paper by ABIM on the “illegitimacy” of Anwar Ibrahim’s defection to UMNO. (Title translation: Dynamism of Islamic movements and contemporary challenges.)
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Dakwah and Youth Activism

Without exception, scholarship on ABIM recognizes the instrumental role that youth activism has played in the organization’s genesis and early popularity. Nagata 1980 and Lee 2010 note that Islamic resurgence or the Islamization process in Malaysia began in the 1970s and provided the conditions for the emergence of Islamic NGO and civil society action. Anwar 1987 and Nagata 1984 point to the emergence of the dakwah movement—referring to the diverse movement of intensified Islamic activism—among Malaysian students as a key factor in driving this Islamization process. Providing a more introspective account, Hassan 1987, Monutty 1990, and Mehmet 1990 observe that an Islamic identity crisis led younger Malaysians to search for new meanings in Islam, which led to the popularity of ABIM among the youth. The existing generic youth movements at the time were deemed insufficient to cater to the demands of more religiously conscious student leaders, thereby setting the stage for the popularity of religious movements such as ABIM. Abdullah 2003 notes that after a period of decline in the 1990s, ABIM’s recent revival can be explained by its use of popular and relevant terminology such as human rights and national integration, as well as a strong emphasis on intellectualism and academic arguments which appeal to tertiary students. Monutty 1990 noted that ABIM’s ideology is simple but consistent—one that is simply based on Islam—and although the organization might morph in the long run, the ideology will remain constant.

Abdullah, Kamarulnizam. The Politics of Islam in Contemporary Malaysia. Bangi, Malaysia: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 2003.
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The book provides a discussion of the emergence of dakwah movements in Malaysia and their role in Malaysian politics, including links to Islamic NGOs, civil society movements, and political parties.
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Anwar, Zainah. Islamic Revivalism in Malaysia: Dakwah among the Students. Petaling Jaya, Malaysia: Pelanduk, 1987.
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This small booklet provides an impressive account of the rise and growth of the dakwah movement from the perspective of its advocates and followers. It discusses the varied backgrounds of dakwah activists and the radicalization of some of the institutions identified with it (such as ABIM) and touches on the influence of foreign Islamist civil society movements and political parties such as the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt and the Jamaat-i-Islami of Pakistan.
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Hassan, Muhammad K. “The Response of Muslim Youth Organizations to Political Change: HMI in Indonesia and ABIM in Malaysia.” In Islam and the Political Economy of Meaning: Comparative Studies of Muslim Discourse. Edited by William R. Roff, 180–196. New York: Routledge, 1987.
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A useful comparative study of ABIM with the Indonesian student movement Himpunan Mahasiswa Indonesia. One of the few studies that compares ABIM with similar organizations in the region.
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Lee, Julian C. H. Islamization and Activism in Malaysia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2010.
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A book examining the increasing political and social profile of Islam in Malaysia, with some background on ABIM.
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Mehmet, Ozay. Islamic Identity and Development: Studies of the Islamic Periphery. London: Routledge, 1990.
DOI: 10.4324/9780203218686Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The author examines the Islamic revival that is occurring in many developing countries, placing Islamic reassertion and identity in the wider context of the dilemma of reconciling nationalism with Islam, with focus on Turkey and Malaysia, and brief mentions on ABIM.
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Monutty, Mohammad Nor. “Perception of Social Change in Contemporary Malaysia: A Critical Analysis of ABIM’s Role and Its Impact among Muslim Youth.” PhD diss., Temple University, 1990.
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Offers a detailed study into the role of youth activism as the primary vehicle through which ABIM expanded its influence from the perspective of an insider.
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Nagata, Judith. “Religious Ideology and Social Change: The Islamic Revival in Malaysia.” Pacific Affairs 53.3 (Autumn 1980): 405–439.
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Dated but nevertheless probing analysis that has been an important point of reference for researchers working on ABIM. This article analyzes the formative years of post-independence Islamism in which ABIM was the most influential player among the emergent Islamic civil society movements. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Nagata, Judith. The Reflowering of Malaysian Islam: Modern Religious Radicals and Their Roots. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1984.
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An important resource volume on Islamic civil society in Malaysia illuminates the historical, cultural, and intellectual roots of the dakwah movement, four institutional forms it has taken (of which one is ABIM), and the character of its leadership. While identifying the tensions between distinct streams of dakwah movements, Nagata also provides a careful analysis of points of convergence.
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Organizational Structure

The official ABIM website, Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia, outlines the organizational structure of ABIM and explains the work of its various committees. The highest central body empowered to formulate policies and initiate activities for the movement is the CEC or Central Executive Committee (Jawatankuasa Kerja Pusat ABIM). This committee is, however, responsible and accountable to both the Council of Syura and the Muktamar of Muslim Youth (the General Assembly). This council is empowered to nominate representatives to the CEC and has the liberty to give opinions pertaining to organizational policies and strategies. The Muktamar of Muslim Youth represents the voice of the ABIM rank and file. The ABIM constitution provides for each state to have its own state, district, and unit branches. The organizational structure and the functions of the State Executive Council (SEC) are similar to that of CEC except that they operate on a smaller scale and do not have general secretaries. ABIM’s activities mostly take the form of lectures, seminars, conferences, leadership, and tamrin kader (cadre training courses) throughout the country. Its activities can be categorized into two major kinds, socioreligious and socioeconomic, ranging across education, leadership training, and community services. In education, ABIM offers independent and comprehensive educational opportunities ranging from preschool education to diploma courses. According to Anwar 1987, ABIM’s leadership training can be divided into two levels: the usra (the basic cell through which, like the communist cell group, the movement’s ideology and strategy for struggle are discussed), and the tamrin, or leadership training. Abdullah 2003 also noted that ABIM’s record of its economic activities is not very impressive, although compared to the Arqam—another popular Malaysian Islamic movement at the time—ABIM is more successful in the educational sector. Meanwhile, Hashim 2004 provides a unique account of how ABIM mobilizes Malay youths at state and local levels.

Abdullah, Kamarulnizam. The Politics of Islam in Contemporary Malaysia. Bangi, Malaysia: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 2003.
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This book provides some insight into ABIM’s social and political activities in the context of the intensification of religious discourse in Malaysian politics. Nevertheless, its main emphasis is on the increasingly religious color of political contestation between the two main Muslim parties in Malaysia—UMNO and PAS.
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Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia.
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The official website of ABIM, which provides detailed information on its structure, history, leadership, and ongoing activities.
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Anwar, Zainah. Islamic Revivalism in Malaysia: Dakwah among the Students. Petaling Jaya, Malaysia: Pelanduk, 1987.
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Offers a detailed account of the activities of ABIM against the backdrop of broader religiosity among Malaysia’s Muslim youth in the 1970s and 1980s. Anwar offers a critical view of the Islamic resurgence as it intensified in the 1970s and 1980s, focusing particularly on how the dakwah message is disseminated through personal and educational networks.
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Hashim, Mohd Nazri. “Islamic Movement (ABIM) in Kedah.” BA diss., Kolej Universiti Islam, 2004.
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A useful fieldwork-based BA study of the ABIM secretariat in Kedah that sheds light on ABIM’s operations at the state level.
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Leadership

The evolution of ABIM’s leadership has been documented across a wide range of literature on the organization, including its own website. ABIM’s founding members were Ustaz Abdul Wahab Abdullah and Fauzi Abdul Rahman. The first Mukramar held in 1972 elected Ustaz Razali Nawawi as ABIM’s first president. According to Lum 2001, soon after its formation ABIM became widely known as a “radical,” uncompromising student body. Lum 2001 notes further that this reputation for radical activism was cemented when Anwar Ibrahim was elected as ABIM president in 1974. Anwar is easily the most recognizable ABIM personality in the organization’s history. In 1983, Ustaz Siddiq Fadhil took over as president and ushered in a period which saw ABIM shift its focus to domestic welfare issues, which Lum 2001 notes ABIM tried to tackle by establishing its own brand of educational institutions throughout the country. As Nasir 2010 highlights, during this time ABIM’s activities followed for the most part the archetypal model of Islamic movements worldwide with its priorities focused on tarbiyah (education). ABIM started schools which tried to balance between religious and secular curricula across all levels of education from kindergartens and preschools to secondary schools. These schools are open to both members and the wider public. Nasir 2010 further contends that ABIM also played a role in the Islamization of knowledge, an approach which studies conventionally “secular” subjects such as social sciences from the Islamic viewpoint. Muhammad Nur Monutty took over as ABIM’s fourth president in 1991, a time when welfare and humanitarian assistance activities were expanded internationally. In 1998, Ahmad Azam took over from Monutty and ABIM further strengthened its overseas humanitarian work through the work of its Misi Keamanan Sejagat (Global Peace Mission) groups. According to ABIM’s website, Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (also cited under Organizational Structure), following the Reformasi period in the late 1990s, ABIM came out with the Penyatuan Ummah (ummah unity) agenda, which sought to overcome political enmity among Malaysian Muslims, which had split into a pro-Anwar opposition camp and a pro-UMNO camp. In 2003, the sixth president, Yusri Muhammad, was elected. Hamid 2009 points out that this period saw the organization focus more intently on religious issues, particularly the special position Islam held in the constitution. Muhamamd Razak Idris, elected in August 2009, was the seventh president of ABIM. Amidi Abdul Manan, elected in July 2011, is the eighth and currently serving. Statements made by ABIM leaders on a range of national, social, and religious issues, especially as they relate to dakwah, have been documented by Nasir 2007.

Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia.
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The official website of ABIM, which details the organization’s various initiatives among the population, and in particular in relation to the Malay community.
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Hamid, Ahmad Fauzi Abdul. “Islamist Civil Society in Malaysia under Abdullah Badawi: The Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM) and Darul Arqam.” Studia Islamika 16.3 (2009): 439–470.
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A well-written comparative analysis of two key Muslim civil society groups in Malaysia and how their discourse has affected political behavior among Malaysia’s Muslim population.
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Lum, Chih Feng, Boon Hooi Ng and Kok Wahying, trans. ABIM: 3 Dekad yang Penuh Dugaan. Petaling Jaya, Malaysia: ABIM, 2001.
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Details the evolution of ABIM over three decades since its formation. Covers substantial ground on various aspects of the organization, including the leadership and organizational structure over the years. A useful backgrounder. (Title translation: ABIM: Three decades of challenges.)
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Nasir, Badlihisham Mohd. “Da’wah in the Pronouncements of the ABIM Leaders (1970s–1990s).” Journal Usuluddin 26 (2007): 85–103.
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A useful survey on the statements of ABIM leaders as they relate to the importance of dakwah (da’wah) in ABIM’s activism. The emphasis of the article is on the religious character of ABIM’s civil engagement, and the religious credentials of its leaders.
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Nasir, Badlihisham Mohd. “Pendidikan dan Gerakan Islam di Malaysia: Satu Tinjauan.” Journal of Arabic and Islamic Education 2.1 (2010): 1–12.
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General survey the development of Islamic civil society and educational movements in Malaysia. Written in the Malay language. (Title translation: Education and Islamic movements in Malaysia: A survey.)
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International Relations

Despite extensive involvement in international humanitarian assistance, the international dimension of ABIM’s activism has not been subject to analytical scrutiny. Allusions to this aspect of the organization’s work can be found in several studies. ABIM 1977 and ABIM 1980 document the organization’s seminars on Sunni scholars that were sponsored by the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Malaysia. On the other hand, Ibrahim 1978 and ABIM 1979 highlight ABIM’s sympathies toward Shiʿite clerics in Iran in the buildup to the Iranian Revolution, including ABIM’s observation of “Solidarity Day” in conjunction with the Revolution. In fact, in the working paper on Islamic extremism and militancy in Malaysia, Hamid 2007 mentions how ABIM was condemned by the United Malays National Organization (UMNO)-led Malaysian government in the early 1980s for “attempting to import” Iranian ideology. Hamid 2009 argues that ABIM’s twin principles of dakwah and tarbiyah were conspicuously influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt and Pakistan’s Jamaat-i-Islami. For example, ABIM recommends to its members the daily recitation of al-ma’thurat, a collection of Quranic verses and prayers commissioned by Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. Intellectual education in ABIM relies heavily on literature produced by scholars identified with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Jamaat-i-Islami.

ABIM. Report on Asian Muslim Youth Seminar on Da’wah, 24–28 February 1977. Kuala Lumpur: ABIM, 1977.
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The proceedings of a major ABIM-organized event that saw representation from a host of Islamic youth organizations worldwide, where themes such as Muslim religious resurgence and unity were discussed.
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ABIM. Concept of Islamic State. Kuala Lumpur: ABIM, 1979.
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A short collection containing five chapters on various aspects of Islamic governance, including a chapter written by Ayatollah Khomeini.
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ABIM. Report on Seminar Pemikiran Islam III: Ibn Taimiyyah dan Kebangkitan Pemikiran Islam, 20 January 1980, Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur: ABIM, 1980.
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The proceedings of two seminars sponsored by the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. Most of the speakers involved were from Saudi Arabia. The first seminar focused broadly on youth activism, while the second explored the Islamic thought of Ibn Taimiyyah and its continued relevance in contemporary Muslim societies. (Report on the Third Seminar on Islamic Thought: Ibn Taimiyyah and resurgence of Islamic thinking.)
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Hamid, Ahmad Fauzi Abdul. Islam and Violence in Malaysia. RSIS Working Paper 123. Singapore: S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, 2007.
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An important study that maps out the history and permutations of religiously inspired political violence in various quarters of Malaysia’s Muslim community.
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Hamid, Ahmad Fauzi Abdul. “Transnational Islam in Malaysia.” In Transnational Islam in South and Southeast Asia: Movements, Networks, and Conflict Dynamics, 141–166. Washington, DC: National Bureau of Asian Research, 2009.
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This paper makes the point that ABIM was influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt and the Jamaat-i-Islami of Pakistan, particularly in the early years following its formation.
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Ibrahim, Anwar. Islam-Penyelesaian kepada Masalah Masyarakat Majmuk. Kuala Lumpur: ABIM, 1978.
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A transcript of Anwar Ibrahim’s speech that quotes the Iranian constitution, which supposedly supports minority rights, religious rights, language rights, freedom of expression rights, and so on. (Title translation: Islam: The solution for problems in pluralist societies.)
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Political Islam

While most of the literature on ABIM focuses on its civil society activism, some have dealt more explicitly with the organization’s views on politics, including the concept of the Islamic state. Like other Islamic movements worldwide, the idea of establishing an Islamic state is ABIM’s primary objective, even though its definition and concept is unclear. What is clear is the influence that the Muslim Brotherhood has had on how ABIM leaders have conceptualized the Islamization of politics, as detailed in Abaza 2002 and Malek 2011. Dahalan 2008 argues that ABIM had roots in Pertubuhan Dakwah al-Rahmaniyyah, which was established in 1963 and disseminated Brotherhood ideology through its magazine, An-Nur. Zakaria 2007 considers ABIM to be the Malaysian version of the Muslim Brotherhood due to its adoption of the Brotherhood’s concepts and models of community engagement, such as dakwah and tarbiyah. According to Zakaria 2007, among the efforts to promote Muslim Brotherhood ideology was the series translation of Qutb’s Fi Zilal al-Quran (In the shadow of the Qurʾan) in ABIM’s official publication, Risalah. The series was then consolidated and published as a book. At the same time, Zakaria 2007 also astutely distinguishes between ABIM’s earlier support of Sayyid Qutb’s Brotherhood religiopolitical ideology that stressed the theory of al-hakimiyyah and its later turn away from Qutbian thought in favor of more apolitical permutations of Brotherhood ideology. Zaleha and Hassan 2009, on the other hand, traces the evolution of ABIM’s relationship with political authority in Malaysia, specifically how it shifted from confrontation to cooperation.

Abaza, Mona. Debates on Islam and Knowledge in Malaysia and Egypt: Shifting Worlds. New York: Routledge, 2002.
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A useful comparative backgrounder on the production of Islamic knowledge in Egypt and Malaysia. It contains some references to ABIM and to Anwar Ibrahim.
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Dahalan, Zulkifli. “Al-Rahmaniah: Sejarah dan peranan yang Pernah dimainkannya dalam aktivlti-aktiviti Dakwah Islamiah di Malaysia” ESTEEM Akademic Journal 4 (2008): 133–150.
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A rare paper that looks into the Al-Rahmaniyah group. (Title translation: Al-Rahmaniah: Its history and role in the context of dakwah activism in Malaysia.)
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Malek, Z Abdul. “From Cairo to Kuala Lumpur: The Influence of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood on the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (ABIM).” MA diss., Georgetown University, 2011.
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A thoughtful MA dissertation that focuses specifically on the influence of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood on ABIM. The dissertation also includes a brief discussion on the 2011 uprisings in Egypt.
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Zakaria, Fauzi. Pengaruh Pemikiran Assyahid Sayyid Qutb Terhadap Gerakan Islam di Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur: Jundi Resources, 2007.
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A book outlining the political ideas of Sayyid Qutb and argues for their influence on Islamic movements in Malaysia, including ABIM. (Title translation: The influence of the thought of Sayyid Qutb on Islamic movements in Malaysia.)
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Zaleha, Sharifah, and Syed Hassan. “Negotiating Islamism: The Experiences of the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia.” Journal of Islamic Studies 29 (2009): 59–81.
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Provides an account of the evolution of ABIM’s relationship with the Malaysian state, from the confrontational politics of the 1970s to its reconciliation with the developmentalist policies of the Mahathir government in the 1990s, while at the same time maintaining its Islamic NGO checks-and-balances role. Available online for purchase or by subscription.