By Assim Siddiqui
"People say I have two of the most important government portfolios: climate change and terrorism," joked Dr Yaacob Ibrahim to me on my visit to Singapore last week. Dr Ibrahim is Singapore`s dynamic yet down-to-earth minister for the environment and water resources and minister for Muslim affairs. He epitomises the meeting of the religious and the worldy in Singapore.
Singapore - a country that has transformed itself from a third world to a first world country within 40 years - has levels of inter-racial and inter-religious harmony that other nations would die for.
Around 16% of Singapore`s four million population is Muslim, mainly of Malay origin. It has an official Muslim body - the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura or Muis). Established by an act of parliament, Muis restricts itself to dealing with Muslim-specific concerns such as managing mosques, certifying halal meat, collecting religious alms (zakat) and running Islamic scholarship programmes. Its overriding priority is to forge a Singaporean Muslim identity as being a "Muslim community of excellence that is religiously profound and socially progressive, which thrives in a multi-religious society, secular state and globalised world". It sees its mission to both deepen Singaporean Muslims` "understanding and practice of Islam" with "enhancing the wellbeing of the nation". A constant theme of its work is to develop the Muslim community in partnership with that of the nation. "Good Muslims are good citizens," is one of its main mantras and it strives for an Islam which is practised "beyond form or rituals" and "rides the modernisation wave".
Singapore is a tiny country (more a city-state) that is dependent on the US for its security against regional bulwarks. Hence anti-US feelings need to be measured with Singapore`s national interest. Demonstrations against US foreign policy are permitted but in a strictly peaceful and controlled manner.
The religious diversity of Singapore, together with rising Islamic revivalism, makes the management of religions important for the Singapore government. Being a secular state, all religions are considered equal. This works to everyone`s advantage. However, rising religious assertiveness within one religious community tilts the harmonious balance and can trigger excesses in other faith groups.
As the world becomes increasingly smaller, increasing religiosity needs to be balanced with the interests of others. A secular democratic system attempts to create a balanced situation where there is equal access to the public space while the state remains neutral. (Though there is more than one model of secularism).
Many of the religious scholars trained by Muis are graduates of Egypt`s Al Azhar university, considered by most Sunni Muslims to be the most prestigious school of Islamic learning. However, Muis offers before and after training to ensure its young imams have a profound understanding of what it means to be a minority in a multi-faith secular state.
The Singaporean model is a microcosm of the challenges of managing multi-religious communities in the 21st century, where the secular parameters safeguard the wider interests of people and thus allow each to practise their own religion freely - without any one becoming too assertive. Singapore - with its greater state control - has the ability to manage this more "efficiently" than freer countries such as Britain. The disadvantage is that, unlike Britain, there is less open debate over these issues.
An area where British Muslims excel is their ability to get up and make things happen, hence the City Circle and Muslim Youth Helpline were invited to share their experiences with Singaporean Muslim youth. Singaporeans have more of a tendency to wait to be told what to do. Thinking outside the box and proactively empowering themselves to change their own conditions does not come too readily.
However, whatever Singaporeans do, they do well. They are striving to become a major player in Islamic finance, giving London a run for its money. Their interfaith work too is impressive. And given that neighbourhoods are forcibly mixed, they need to be.
One of the older mosques is Singapore`s Ba`alwi mosque, established by Arab migrants from Yemen who trace their lineage back to the Prophet. The imam of the mosque is renowned for his inter-faith work. I performed my Friday prayers there and afterwards was invited to a birthday party for a veteran Sikh inter-faith activist - with cake cutting and all. Having good relations with neighbours doesn`t just help with the street parking at congregational prayer times in racially and religiously mixed neighbourhoods, but builds "social goodwill" that can be drawn upon in times of need.
A number of supporters of Jemaah Islamiyah - an "affiliate" of Al Qaida - have been recently arrested. Muis provides counselling to those arrested and their families to ween them off the ideology of hate.
There is much we can learn from the Singaporean model. Notably their debates on how Islam and secularism can go hand in hand. Representatives from Singapore will hopefully be invited to the UK soon to share their experiences.
Source: www.commontisfree.guardian.co.uk (22 April 2007)
