Orientalists and Islam: Ramifications to Educational System in Malaya

The majority of orientalists embrace philosophy of logical positivism empirical i.e. an understanding that accentuate enforcement of reason thoroughly, as approach to acquire a meticulous fact based on rigorous and systematic research methods. The philosophy disclaims the attestation of a fact by the source of revelation indeed considered irrelevant in the verification of history. This article pinpoints the analysis of Orientalists’ thought to educational system in Malaya, proportion to religious and secular education, in fact to determine the influence of Islam in education in Malaya. The author executes historical graphs method, comparative and content analysis in order to evaluate Orientalists’ thought. The study results Orientalist writings and their thinking approaches towards educational system in Malaya channel to impugn perspective in order to evaluate Malays and the influence of Islam in the Malaya, and even angle to a biased point of consideration. Orientalist labels Malays as decelerate and retardate nation in terms of modernization of its hold unto Islam which are not relevant to current developments. Therefore, improvement thru the implementation of Western educational system is believe as a felicitous course so as implementation of secularism into Malays in Malaya.