Shanmugam cautions against Islamophobia again

SINGAPORE — Any rise in Islamophobia here poses a significant risk not only to the Muslim community but to Singapore as a whole, said Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam on Wednesday (March 30), cautioning against negative attitudes towards Muslims for the second time in three months.

Islamophobia will be very destructive to the multiracial and multi-religious soul of Singapore, and non-Muslims should reach out to fellow Muslim Singaporeans to make sure community bonds are strong, he said after visiting the Singapore Islamic Hub and engaging in a dialogue with 60 students from the six madrasahs here.

Islamophobia was a topic raised during the dialogue, as was the role of religion in Singapore, the Singaporean Muslim identity and the Government’s attitude to religion, said Mr Shanmugam, who also dropped by the science laboratory of the Madrasah Irsyad Zuhri Al-Islamiah and viewed how students were using robotics and 3D printing during his visit.

Attacks on Muslims increased in London after the Paris attacks last November, and attacks on Muslims in the United States also went up after the San Bernardino shootings by a couple in December, he noted.

“In Singapore you’re not going to see violence in the near term or maybe even the medium term, because we take a very strict approach. But what I fear is that as a reaction to all of this that’s going around the world, that the non-Muslim community will start developing a set of attitudes internally,” said Mr Shanmugam. “People will be too politically correct to express them but internally they’ll start looking at Muslims differently and that’s something I think will be very destructive to the soul and spirit of Singapore that we’ve created.”

Mr Shanmugam added that any rise in Islamophobia would also play into the hands of terrorists, as a Muslim community that is marginalised and discriminated against becomes fertile ground for recruitment. Though each community practices its faith, they must engage and understand one another, accepting the common Singapore identity “that trumps everything else”, said Mr Shanmugam.

Madrasah students and members of the Muslim community interviewed said they have noticed more negative comments online in recent months.

Madrasah Al-Maarif Al-Islamiah student Afifah Shameemah Md Yusof said jokes about Muslims being terrorists — which she encountered at a multi-racial camp about two years ago — are deeply hurtful as “we want to practise our religion without being viewed as a terrorist or a threat to people”. The 17-year-old, who participated in the dialogue on Wednesday, said she welcomed the raising of awareness that Islamophobia “isn’t okay and discrimination is also not okay in our current world”.

Madrasah Al-Arabiah Al-Islamiah student Mohd Kasyful Azim Mohd Kamal Ariffin, 15, suggested that more events such as sports competitions could recognise madrasahs.

Mr Mohamed Nassir Abdul Sukkur of Islamic education outfit SimplyIslam said Mr Shanmugam’s latest remarks may have been a pre-emptive move by the Government, which has said a terrorist attack here is not a question of “if”, but “when”. “It may have sensed some rise, in social media, of some rough language being used by non-Muslims not only in Singapore but all over the world. That would’ve given the Government an indication of things to come in the future,” he said, welcoming the move.

There have been clear instances of Islamophobia abroad, and a friend in Australia was pushed in a train station as she was wearing a hijab, said Mr Nassir. He hoped everyone would understand that the rise of terrorism “has got nothing to do with religion”, with terrorists “not acting based on what the religion espouses”.

Lawyer Abdul Rohim Sarip said there are more negative comments online but it is difficult to say if there has been a detectable rise in Islamophobia here. If the online comments become embedded in one’s beliefs, it would not augur well for race relations, he said. There should be more engagement and understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims, who should try to find common ground, he added.

In January, Mr Shanmugam also spoke about Islamophobia at a symposium organised by the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, calling it “completely unacceptable”. He said non-Muslims here should examine their attitudes towards their Muslim counterparts as he cited a few instances of intolerance spotted here — about a week after the Paris attacks in November last year, the words “Islam murderers” were found scribbled at a bus-stop in Bukit Panjang and on a toilet seat in Jurong Point mall, for instance.