Islam in Brunei

[E4.Muslim Dusun.I9]

Since my retirement, I like to watch morning tv, and normally at that particular time of day, there would be some religious programmes, like a religious sermon or a program on how to recite

do ’a. I would sit through and watch them... [Trans.]

[E5.Muslim Dusun.I26]

It‟s a common thing to listen to religious lecture on radio or to watch it on the tele. But I tend to do that without opinion or

judgement... [Trans.]

[E6.Muslim Dusun.I29]

It is hard for find someone in Brunei who has not been exposed to Islam. I, for one, knew all the basic info on Islam even without reading a religious book. I heard about Islam on radio all the time and from my friendships with Muslim friends... [Trans.]

Thus, as popular mass media regularly disseminates religious information, it seems inevitable for the non-Muslims to possess some knowledge about Islam which they can further explore at their own convenience. What is more, the extent of familiarisation with Islam through the means of exposure mentioned above was further stretched by the effects of the Malaynisation strategy.

As mentioned earlier, the Malaynisation strategy is the state‟s effort to promote the integration of the different ethnic groups into the mainstream Malay Muslim society

for consolidation and nation-building purposes. Evidently, by the 1990s, it becomes increasingly clear that the strategy has led to the breakdown of religious, cultural and social boundaries between the different ethnic groups. One of the indications of such boundary breakdown is the infiltration of Islamic elements into the daily life of the non-Muslims. This includes the possession of solid understanding on Islam, as explained above. Other indications are the proficiency in Bahasa Melayu, the national language of the country, and the subtle emulation of Muslim way of life (Yabit 2007: 5; Saxena 2007: 152; Kershaw 2000: 194). Accordingly, and particularly in the case of the Dusun ethnic group, the Malaynisation strategy has transformed the ethnic group into a community that increasingly exhibits Malay-like behaviour and lifestyle. Some

relevant aspects of the transformation in the Dusuns‟ way of life will be explored in the following section.