Constitutional arrangements are not only the byproduct of concession but the continuing subject of compromise. Dian A. H. Shah’s Constitutions, Religion, and Politics in Asia: Malaysia, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka closely examines how religious clauses, though deeply entrenched in law, continue to be undermined in practice. Church–state relations in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka challenge assumptions regarding the interaction of state identification with religion and state intrusion thereto. But more significantly, they confirm the view that laws are artifacts of history; undivorced from political realities surrounding and preceding them. Rejecting time-slice constitutional interpretations, Shah deconstructs the legal quandaries of our time not in spite of these histories but in light of them. By highlighting these realities early into the literature, Shah sets the stage through a point which, though simple, cannot be overstated: constitutions do not operate in a vacuum.