Visitors to the Tanah Abang area in Jakarta are often amazed by the vast and lavish green building that houses the largest textile market in Southeast Asia. Built in the image of the Islamic monuments of the medieval Arab-Turkish and Persian cities, the Tanah Abang textile mall covers 160,000 square metres, including a mosque within it that can accommodate more than a thousand worshippers. The shops in this iconic mall are sites where bargaining and other commercial exchanges take place daily. Muslim clothing such as long gowns, headscarves, cuffs and tonic tops are sold there, alongside shoes and batik products. What is most amusing about this much talked about mega mall is the pervasive presence of Chinese businessmen and businesswomen. This has not, however, dissuaded the majority Muslims of Southeast Asia from joining the droves of daily shoppers there.

Tanah Abang is not the only modern market (also known as pasar in Malay) in Indonesia where such Muslim cosmopolitanism coexists seamlessly with criminals and riff-raff in the Jakarta area. The tenor of affable interreligious and intercommunal exchanges is obvious at Senen, Pasar Baru, Glodok, Mangga Dua, Cempaka Mas and Jatinegara in Indonesia. Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, such a scene is most vividly evident at the Geylang Serai market in the eastern part of Singapore. Known as ‘The Malay Emporium of Singapore’, a marked presence of diverse communites can be felt at the market. To be sure, Malays in Singapore are fond of buying basic necessities and foodstuffs, clothes and other household products from shops in the area, whether owned by Muslims or non-Muslims. While English is the working language for most Singaporeans today in view of the government's policy of connecting Singapore in a globalising world and of differentiating the country from the rest of Muslim Southeast Asia, where the dominant language is Malay-Indonesian, in Geylang, the more common mode of communication is ‘Melayu Pasar’ (Market Malay), which is a mixture of Malay and English used by business people and their Muslim patrons to arrive at the best deals for the day. Such linguistic cosmopolitanism is not exclusive to Geylang.