Effective leadership fosters religious harmony, says Singapore’s Muslim affairs minister
“If you want to situate a mosque around people who are not Muslims, you can’t do that (use loudspeakers),” he said. “Not even the church. On Sundays, they are tolling the bell and waking everyone up in the morning.”
(FMT) – The ability to make adjustments has laid a strong foundation for religious harmony in Singapore, according to Masagos Zulkifli, the republic’s minister in charge of Muslim affairs
He said religious harmony had been achieved through strong leadership and collaboration among religious leaders.
At a meeting with a visiting Malaysian media team recently, he highlighted the Singapore government’s decision to broadcast the azan, or Muslim call to prayer, over the radio rather than to use loudspeakers in public areas.
“If you want to situate a mosque around people who are not Muslims, you can’t do that (use loudspeakers),” he said. “Not even the church. On Sundays, they are tolling the bell and waking everyone up in the morning.”
Masagos said religious leaders pave the way for such adjustments, allowing mosques and other religious institutions to coexist peacefully.
“The result of that is we have mosques in the middle of towns like this, in a very urban dense build-up. The neighbours are non-Muslims and they say it’s okay,” he said.
Masagos said property values in residential areas do not fall because of the presence of a mosque, church or temple.
Singapore’s population of about 5.7 million is made up mainly of Chinese (74.3%) with Malays accounting for 13.5% and Indians making up 9%.
Religious extremism
Masagos acknowledged that religious extremism is unavoidable but it must remain the exception rather than the rule.
He said the republic adopts upstream, preventative and proactive approaches to address it, with a key strategy being the alignment of religious education within Singapore’s multicultural context.
“It is important for us to always have a reliable core of religious leaders who grow up in context and not allow external influences to come and define things for us,” he said.
He gave the example of graduates of madrasah education, whether local or abroad, who must complete a one-year postgraduate certificate programme on Islam in contemporary societies.
“They need to return to their roots which is where they are going to apply their knowledge,” he said.
Masagos said the graduates would have help from their mentors, “the senior teachers who teach them about the navigation that they have to give to our community living in such a context.”
