Localisation of Malay Muslim Identity in Brunei Darussalam: A Modern Nation’s Cultural and Economic Goals

Abstract

Brunei Darussalam (henceforth Brunei) has recently attracted global attention, especially since the Syariah Penal Code Order 2013, with its “hardline laws” (AFP, 2019; Lindsey & Steiner in Griffith Law Review 25:552–580, 2017), has contributed to debates about the state’s Islamic identity encapsulated in its Malay Islamic Monarchy (MIB) state ideology. Governance through Islamic culture has thus increasingly defined modern-day Brunei.