Tourists aboard Malaysia Airlines, inbound to Kuala Lumpur’s stunning new international airport, see an eyeful of modern beauty in Malaysia’s capital city. Once on the ground, tourists quickly note exquisite Islamic architecture. The Moorish architecture of the main railway station, for example, gives the impression of a graceful mosque-like structure, except for the taxis screeching under its arched eaves!

Modern and Muslim.
Welcome to Malaysia, the gateway to the Malay World! Sitting prominently on the long-distance northwest India to south China trade route, the Malay World has played a vital international role for nearly 2,000 years. By the fifth-century, Malays began to dominate the India-China route and Southeast Asian local trade. Her preeminence in Southeast Asian trade continued until the 16th century and even into the early European colonial period.

Malays founded several trading empires and their language became the major language of commerce in Southeast Asian ports. Melaka, successor of 14th century Melayu that lost its empire to the Javanese kingdom of Majapahit, was instrumental in converting many Southeast Asian kingdoms to Islam in the 15th century.

Today, the Malay-speaking world stretches from Sumatra’s East Coast to the southern Philippine islands. This region includes Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, southern Thailand, Brunei, western Kalimantan, Sarawak, and Sabah (two Malaysian states on Borneo Is.). Many of the Malays of Peninsular Malaysia are descendant of immigrants from the Indonesian islands, principally Sumatra, who assimilated to Malay ethnic identity during the first three decades of the 20th century. With a total Malay population across Southeast Asia of 24 million, the Malays of Malaysia numbers almost 11 million, while it is estimated more than 10 million live on Sumatra. The Sultan of Brunei is Malay as is 71 percent of his kingdom also. Singapore, while primarily Chinese, has some 400,000 Malays, 15 percent of their population . . . until 1965 Singapore was a state in the Federation of Malaysia. Two to three million Malays live in the four southernmost provinces of Thailand, forming the majority population there in what is an overwhelmingly Buddhist nation.

In addition to the ethnic Malays and the widely spoken Malay language, there is a variety of Malay dialects spoken in coastal enclaves throughout Southeast Asia. These dialects and related languages are found among the more than 200 million Muslims who live across the Malay World of Southeast Asia. It is worth stating that this Muslim population is one fifth of the world’s total Muslim population, making Southeast Asia a key region for ministry to Muslims.

The leader of the Malay Prayer Fellowship lived several years in the Malay World. Here are some of his insights into the region:

What social characteristics distinguish Malays from other Muslims?
"Generally speaking the Islam of Southeast Asia is seen as having its own distinctive characteristics. First of all, Muslims in Southeast Asia have had to learn to live in harmony with peoples of other faiths. In Southeast Asia, there are significant Buddhist, Hindu and Christian populations. Yes, Malay Muslims are striving to see conversions to Islam in Malaysia, and are involved in vigorous missionary (dakwah) activity, but they’ve learned to live in harmony. Generally speaking, the Malays are a peaceable and hospitable people."

(Also, the urban Malay Muslims of Malaysia especially, are progressive, modern, and interested in development by design of their national government. This government desires to compete with her former British masters and the rest of the world, and engage the Western world on its own terms.)

"To compete evenly with the world, Malaysia has been sending its best and brightest students overseas for university study. Very few of these students stay overseas as their government scholarship requires they return home after their studies. For the average Malay family, that kid going off to college in the United States or the UK is the very first person from their family ever to go overseas, let alone to receive the benefit of this kind of education. The family expects them to return and give back to the family and to the nation. These Malay students are strongly encouraged to remain faithful to Islam while on campuses overseas where they perceive Christian groups as active and powerful. Malays have tended to cluster together on campuses.."

Are all of the Malay peoples unreached?
"Certainly very few have chosen to follow Jesus. The Pattani Malay in southern Thailand is one bright spot, where some 100 Pattani Malays have become followers of Jesus. Many of these are former leprosy sufferers, society’s outcastes, who have been impacted by the love of Christian workers. One Malaysian Christian worker contends that the lack of Malay response to the gospel is not evidence of resistance, but rather neglect."

What hindrances are there to the spread of the Gospel to Malaysia?
"It is widely accepted that to be Malay is to be Muslim, and it is illegal to evangelize Malays in Malaysia. These rules are older than the nation itself. Christian activity among the tribal peoples, Chinese, and Indians is OK, just not Malays. Such policies can be traced back to originate with the British. In 1874, the Treaty of Pangkor spelled out the rules of British administration of the region. The British agreed . . . that they would not interfere in things pertaining to Malay religion and customs, and this was interpreted and perceived as saying ‘hands off the Malays’ in Christian outreach. It is therefore significant, in the 1930s, that a group of Christian workers in Malaysia, among them lawyers and other very notable people, determined the treaty said nothing of the sort. But the treaty certainly hindered ministry. Today there are churches and Christians who are reticent to engage in Malay outreach for fear of being closed down, imprisoned, or fined."

What will it take to see a church for every Malay people group?
"The story of J.O. Fraser among the Lisu people of Yunnan Province, Southwest China, back in the early 1900s, is a pertinent illustration of what it will take. He began working among the Lisu...he saw a convert here and there, but no sooner had they converted than they fell back into the darkness of animism. Fraser became depressed and was attacked by suicidal despair. Then the Spirit of God enabled him to pray the ‘prayer of faith’ for hundreds of Lisu families to come to Christ. He wrote to his mother in England and the circle she was able to draw around her and he urged them to pray for the Lisu people -- pray that there would be a significant turning among them. And that’s exactly what happened. In the years that followed hundreds of Lisu families did turn to the Lord. Fraser himself commented that the three most important things in Christian ministry were first, prayer; second, prayer, and third, prayer! That’s the way God works!"

How can we pray?

• Ask God to move by His Spirit throughout the Malay World to bless them: that they might have dreams and visions of Jesus; and that they might hunger for a knowledge of God.
• Pray for leaders at every level (in government, in Islam, and in the church); and pray for the easing of restrictions that hinder evangelism.
• In the midst of the Malay majority population exists one of the most vibrant and growing church movements in Asia. Pray that the local churches and believers will manifest a love and grace from God that will draw Malays to Jesus Christ.
• Pray that Scriptures in the Malay language would find their way into the hands of Malays who would be stirred to enquire further.
• Pray for the Lord to thrust out many new workers into the field.