ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THIS PROJECT EMERGED FROM PREVIOUS RESEARCH PERIODS IN Indonesia and Malaysia during which the growing relevance of Islamic law and ethics to public discourses and everyday lives became increasingly apparent to me.

Special thanks go out to all my Malaysian interlocutors, including street vendors, taxi drivers, Muslim worshipers, mosque speakers, students, store workers, political activists, NGO members, sharia court judges, and Muslim scholars in government think tanks and departments. Of course, without these discussions, interviews, and welcomed participation, this project would have been impossible. After returning from these productive periods of fieldwork research I organized two panels, one at the annual Association for Asian Studies meeting in Philadelphia during March 2014 and the other at the American Anthropological Association meeting in Washington, DC, during December 2014. I acknowledge the “Sharia Dynamics” panel participants and volume contributors Norhafsah Hamid, Matthew S. Erie, Omer Awass, Ahmad Najib Burhani, Robert W. Hefner, James D. Frankel, Laura Elder, Wajeeha Ameen Malik, Charles Allers, David J. Banks, Meryem Zaman, and Sarah Eltantawi for stimulating discussion and astute work. I also thank the Critical Dialogues in Southeast Asian Studies series editors, anonymous reviewers, and Ustadha Zaynab Ansari for their insightful comments on an earlier draft of this book. I am grateful to Jacob Wilson Zucker and Monica M. Yatsyla from the Hofstra Faculty Support Center for their technical assistance. Final thanks go out to my wife, Rachida, and our children, Yusuf and Aisha, for their inspiration and patience as I produced this text.