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Neofundamentalist Thought, Dakwah, and Religious Pluralism Among Muslims in Singapore

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Neofundamentalist Thought, Dakwah, and Religious Pluralism Among Muslims in Singapore Neofundamentalist Thought, Dakwah, and Religious Pluralism among Muslims in Singapore Mohamed Imran bin Mohamed Taib National University of Singapore Abstract ination of segments of the Muslim religious elite and masses alike. This orientation corresponds to the dak - Since the mid 1970s, Muslim societies have seen the wah phenomenon as discussed by several scholars emergence and spread of a new type of religious ori - (Muzaffar, 1987; Nagata, 1994). However, because of entation, ushered in by various socio-political factors the minority status of Muslims in Singapore, there are shaping the postcolonial world on the brink of glob - few avenues for neofundamentalist thought to mani - alisation. This religious orientation, hereby termed fest itself in terms of an overt political movement akin ‘neo-fundamentalism’ (Rahman, 1981; Roy, 2004), to those seen in Muslim-majority countries. has since occupied the religious imagination of many Yet, proponents of neo-fundamentalist thought in Muslims and dominates discourses and institutions Singapore continue to adopt the same mode and within the Muslim world. At the core of this orienta - frames toward Islam and feed on the discourses pur - tion lies a supremacist, puritanical and exclusivist at - sued and promoted by their counterparts in neigh - titude toward interpretations of Islam. It is this bouring countries and elsewhere. Thus, what is orientation that has been at the forefront of much observable in Singapore is a specific adaptation within public attention and controversies worldwide, includ - the context of a Muslim-minority and secular state of ing in the Malay-Indonesian world. Central to this Singapore. This paper argues that this adaptation orientation is the desire to ‘Islamise’ society through process, otherwise known as ‘cultural Islamisation’, active proselytism ( dakwah ), directed to both Mus - has taken various forms in different phases. Yet, this lims and non-Muslims alike. This desire may range process is not without implications for the Muslim from calls to implement certain codified shari’a laws community and Singapore society in general. Neo- in order to achieve the completion of Islam, to at - fundamentalist thought continues to inform lay ideas tempts to eliminate diversity of views and opinions, about Islam, while providing a template for respond - either through persuasion or coercion, physical or ing to social issues ranging from Muslim laws to in - otherwise. terfaith relations. This paper seeks to highlight, discuss and critically It is the aim of this paper to highlight that the in - evaluate the emergence, rise and subsequent domi - teraction of neo-fundamentalist thought with state nance of the neo-fundamentalist orientation among and society continues to have an impact on social re - Muslims in Singapore. Ever since its emergence in the lations and public policies, particularly those govern - 1970s, this orientation has shaped the religious imag - ing the politics of representation within Singapore. isa.e-Forum © 2012 The Author(s) © 2012 ISA (Editorial Arrangement of isa.e-Forum) 1 Mohamed Taib The latter is critical within the context of this island, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi’s regime in 1979. At the nation-state where different religious communities are centre of both events were blocs of fervent believers placed in neat monolithic blocs that often ignore the who insisted that religion should define public issues contestations and diversities within each bloc. and shape politics of the new world. Throughout the 1980s and stretching to recent times, these blocs of ‘religio-political activists’ began shaping both the out - Introduction look of former traditional religions and new con - sciousness in defining issues in public, directing new “To be in possession of an absolute truth is to have a net of familiarity spread over the whole of eternity. types of religiosity, defining new markers of identity There are no surprises and no unknowns. All and contesting local and international politics in questions have already been answered, all decisions many societies worldwide. 1 made, all eventualities foreseen. The true believer is without wonder and hesitation.” This essay is an attempt to locate religious funda - mentalism within segments of the Malay population – Eric Hoffer, The True Believer and trace its dynamics within the state construct of multiracialism and religious pluralism in the island Religious fundamentalism has been the object of city-state of Singapore. I am aware that the term ‘fun - much scrutiny in the last three decades. For sociolo - damentalism’ is a highly contested one in the lexicon gists, religious fundamentalism posed a challenge to of academic and non-academic discourses. Alatas, for the once popular view of the ‘secularisation’ thesis, example, highlights that often ‘the distinction be - which simply put suggests the following: ‘as society tween the fundamentals of religion and fundamental - modernises, religion will lose its significance and be - ism as an ideology that is literalist and narrow in comes a matter of private choice or conscience’ (Wil - orientation is not made, and may convey the under - son, 1966). By the 1970s, it had become clear that as standing that a return to the fundamentals results in society modernises, the division between ‘public’ and a literalist and narrow interpretation of Islam’ (Alatas, ‘private’ is not as clear. Observing the case of Ameri - 2009:11). The fact that the term emerged in the can Protestantism in the United States, it soon be - 1920s to describe Christian movements reacting came clear that ‘God is back’ (Micklethwait & against the onslaught of historicism and liberalism, Wooldridge, 2009) The new form of religiosity that may also imply that there is continuity of cultural emerged ‘do[es] not recognise a division between the forms, and thus, ‘misleading’ (Halliday, 1992:92). “public” and “private”; God is everywhere and thus Nonetheless, Choueri argues that the term can still everything is under scrutiny, nothing is “private”’ serve as ‘a linguistic device that could be harnessed to (Jones, 2010:2). Such religiosity insists that God and the advantage of generic appellation’ and that we need faith should be at the heart of society and embedded not subscribe to ‘upholding its incidental appearance within all society’s structures and institutions, paving in Western discourse as being the yardstick of correct the way for a conflation of religion and politics in a classification’ (Choueri, 1990:xvii). In its generic ap - new unprecedented scale (Bruce, 2008). pellation, fundamentalism is a ‘response to the chal - But while much of the research on fundamental - lenges of modernity which were perceived by the ism has been focusing on the North American case of zealous as threats to the integrity and survival of their Christian Protestantism, after the 1979 Iranian Rev - faith’ (Noorani, 2002:66). This response manifests it - olution Western scholars began applying the term self ‘as a strategy, or sets of strategies, by which belea - ‘fundamentalism’ to a much broader phenomenon. guered believers attempt to preserve their distinctive Just as the election of Ronald Reagan to the American identity as a people or group’ through ‘selective re - presidency in 1980 caught many ‘by surprise’ (Am - trieval of doctrines, beliefs and practices’, which were merman, 1993:1), so did the rise of Ayatollah Ruhol - ‘refined, modified, and sanctioned in a spirit of lah Khomeini to power after deposing the Shah shrewd pragmatism’. These selective doctrines, beliefs 2 Neofundamentalist Thought, Dakwah, and Religious Pluralism among Muslims in Singapore and practices serve as ‘a bulwark against the encroach - acts such as the Maintenance of Religious Harmony ment of outsiders who threaten to draw the believers Act, the Societies Act, Sedition Act, and the Internal into a syncretistic, areligious, or irreligious cultural Security Act. Despite 45 years of painstaking efforts milieu’ (Marty & Appleby, 1991:xii-xiii). at national integration and nation-building, Prime In this essay, I am referring to ‘fundamentalism’ as Minister Lee Hsien Loong reminded fellow Singa - an orientation. By this, I mean a specific approach to poreans in a National Day Rally in 2009 that ‘the reality with a set of concepts linked together by a co - most visceral and dangerous fault line is (still) race herent worldview, which tends to influence the and religion’ (U-Wen, 2009). With constant re - method of thinking and the presentation of facts minders of the racial and religious riots occurring in (Mannheim, 1991). An orientation normally mani - the early period of independence, the Singapore gov - fests itself in actions and approaches to reality. Thus, ernment adopts an almost Hobbesian logic in positing I am referring also to the style of thinking that is made the need for a strong state to check the tendencies of visible through (1) verbal and written expression, (2) race and religion to be sources of conflict that can tear reaction to triggers in society, (3) preoccupation with Singapore apart. certain ideas, and (4) absence in thought structures. Given this scenario, it is almost impossible for Is - In short, through adopting the approach of sociology lamism or political Islam to take root in Singapore. 2 of knowledge, I am primarily analysing the types of However, this does not stop segments of the Malay discourses and/or actions in public or private life of intelligentsia from adopting and disseminating reli - individuals or groups in society and their implications gious discourses laden with fundamentalist categories for societal development process. This inevitably de - and concepts. What becomes obvious in the context parts from the study of fundamentalism as an organ - of minority-Muslim Singapore is the emergence of ised social movement, although the latter may ‘closed, scripturalist and conservative view of Islam encompass traits of the fundamentalist orientation. In that rejects the national and statist dimension in this sense, fundamentalism, therefore, is distinguish - favour of the ummah , the universal community of all able from overt political acts in the name of Islam, Muslims, based on sharia ’ (Roy, 2004:1).
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