9/11 and Boycott

Boycott or Buycott? Malay Middle-Class

Consumption Post - 9/11

Johan Fischer

Roskilde University, Denmark

abstract Much current anti-consumerist and anti-globalisation discourse identifies

boycotting as an immensely powerful force. Religious and secular activists alike promote consumer boycotts as a type of practised resistance that promises to break US

economic, military and cultural hegemony. Obviously, consumers’ support is essential

for the success of such boycotts, and I argue that insufficient anthropological attention has been paid to the micro-social logics of modern forms of boycotting. This article

examines the political and cultural effects of the Islamic opposition’s call to boycott

US goods in Malaysia in the wake of 9/11. I shall show how this issue evokes a wide

range of contestations and paradoxes in the everyday lives of suburban Malay Muslim

middle-class families. Most of all, the boycott confronts divergent Malay middle-class

groups with the problem of how to translate intentionality into practice.

keywords Islam, US hegemony post-9/11, middle class, Malaysia

I

am in the Al-Mujahideen mosque situated between the modern and relatively affluent middle-class suburb of Taman Tun Dr Ismail (ttdi) half an

hour’s drive from the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, and the gigantic

One Utama mall. This mosque is largely influenced by the Parti SeIslam Malaysia (pas), the Islamic opposition party enjoying widespread popularity. It

is October 2001, merely one month after the 9 /11 bombings in the US. In

the mosque, I am looking at an announcement that encourages boycotting

American goods because of the war in Afghanistan and American support of

Israeli oppression of the Palestinians. Most graphically, the announcement

displays a picture of an Israeli plane crashing into the Kaaba,1 presumably

during Ramadan, which is soon to commence in Malaysia. The text under

the picture reads: ‘Every Malaysian Ringgit (the currency in Malaysia) spent

on American products...