Fischer is not the first to study the Malay Muslim middle class in Malaysia, which has a fertile history of scholars, both from Malaysia and outside it, explaining the seeming contradiction of an increased Islamic religiosity along with increased materialism or consumption of all things modern.
Fischer is not the first to study the Malay Muslim middle class in Malaysia, which has a fertile history of scholars, both from Malaysia and outside it, explaining the seeming contradiction of an increased Islamic religiosity along with increased materialism or consumption of all things modern. However, his rich ethnography provides vital clues as to how the state and individual consumers operate within the Islamic marketplace on a local level. He deconstructs the everyday consumer choices and decisions against a backdrop of the Islamization of society and the market. … The greatest achievement of this monograph lies in the way it weaves together a convincing narrative of the competing and conflicting ontologies of consumption and the different modes of being a middle-class Malay Muslim. It is a useful addition to the canon of research on the middle class(es) in Malaysia and of Islamic consumption in general.