One of the most pressing concerns for civil society in Southeast Asia today is the contraction of democratic space in state-society relations. This contraction has come about as a direct consequence not only of the effects of contemporary terrorism on civil society, but equally of efforts by regional governments at addressing terrorism and the conditions that enable it. The pressures stem from at least two fronts. From the bottom-up, the region has been experiencing a growing politicization - a "deprivatization" if you will - of religious faith in general and of religious extremism in particular. In a sense, this rejuvenated link between piety and politics is a logical outgrowth of the broader trend of democratization that has taken hold, in varying degrees, in the region as a whole. As predominantly postcolonial societies long defined by an enforced social conservatism and po...