ICCOS by Muis

Representatives from local and overseas organisations learn how Muslim community organisations in Singapore have partnered with the wider society in developing the 3Cs – Character, Competency and Citizenry as part of the Executive Study Programme. [News]

Last week, I had the privilege of joining local and foreign representatives on an Executive Study Programme (a special learning journey) and we visited the Yusof Ishak Mosque and the An-Nur Mosque to hear from the RLAF or Blessing to All organisation as well as the Bersamamy (Together with you) efforts as part of the M3 initiatives. I had VIPs from Malaysia, UAE and Thailand, as well as international guests from Japan and even the United Kingdom in the ('tour') group. There were also Singaporeans who held leadership roles in mosques, madrasahs and even charities (like BAPA Badan Agama & Pelajaran Radin Mas). I think I was just lucky to be there as I signed up early and perhaps due to my current gig with Muis. I definitely learnt a lot even as a local and am inspired to do more for the community to contribute and make ours a strong community of success.

 

 

 

On the evening of the first day (9.9.22), PM Lee graced the event and gave the keynote address. I was seated to a Secondary 3 Madrasah boy (Head Prefect, no less) and I felt like an educator again as I helped him understand the context and content of what was said.

Here is an extract from PM Lee's speech:

"Another example of a sensitive issue is a live matter that we are dealing with now – the repeal of Section 377A of the Penal Code, which is a law from the British colonial period criminalising sex between men. Islam considers homosexual acts to be sinful. Many Christians think so too. But what some religions consider a sin should not necessarily therefore be made a crime. Like every human society, Singapore also has gay people in our midst and like other Singaporeans, gay people want to be respected and accepted, just like their fellow citizens.

For reasons that the government has explained, we intend to repeal s377A, and to decriminalise sex between men. But at the same time we do not want the repeal to: trigger any drastic shift in our societal norms; lead to same-sex marriage; or affect the many government policies that are based on the existing definition of marriage, namely a union between a man and a woman. Thus we will uphold and safeguard the institution of marriage, and intend to amend the Constitution to protect the existing definition of marriage from being challenged on constitutional grounds in the courts. Muslims are not directly affected by this, because their marriages are governed separately by Muslim law. But understandably, they are concerned too. Hence we have reassured Muslims that they will remain free to preach and practise what Islam teaches on sexuality and marriage. And the broader social context within which Muslims live will not suddenly change.

In a multi-religious society, the government must take a neutral and secular approach.  But the government will also recognise and respect the different legitimate views and aspirations among Singaporeans, and balance them fairly in order to reach a political accommodation. With give-and-take, all groups can live and let live, and get along together. It is the only way for us."

Photo with Azree who is now at Workforce Singapore

The conference itself was pretty insightful and some parts were too deep that I'd probably need to read and reflect on the translated post-conference reports to be able to understand what was shared better. Unfortunately, the translating devices offered were not functioning too well so I missed out on most of the parts when the speakers spoke in Arabic (and it was translated to the English language). I think my NTU Arabic Tutor is involved in the translation services too. I approached him when I saw him at the event and after some time he actually remembered me and we had a nice short catch-up.

My three favourite speakers and some of the points I noted down are:

1. Sheikh Dr Mustafa Ceric - The Grand Mufti Emeritus of Bosnia, Bosnia and Herzegovina

• He talked about the simplistic definition of success as Najh which is not in the Quran but Falah is and it is more eternal and is included even in the call to prayer (the azan)
• He said that there is no recipe for success, we'd have to do our own but there is a recipe for failure which is to please everyone
• Muslims have problems internally, we love but sometimes fall short of respect

2. Professor Abdullah Saeed - Sultan of Oman Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies and Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor at the University of Melbourne, Australia

• He shared about the expectations of and on the Asatizah (2500+) and that we need to ensure that they have competitive jobs and their aspirations are met (reminds me of conversation with Pusara Aman Mosque Chairman on being generous and sincere and Allah will support in invisible/unimaginable ways)
• He looked into current models of Islamic higher education and provided a possible model for SIC to consider in the future which amplifies the best of each model (includes contextualisation with other disciplines and alignment with specific Islamic ethical and legal issues rooted in Islamic traditions)

3. Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool - Former Premier of Western Cape and Founder of the World for All Foundation, South Africa

• He shared about South Africa's 350+ years journey of Islam since apartheid and slavery
• Coming from Malay origin (his ancestors were brought to Africa as Dutch slaves), and he even corresponded with Nelson Mandela in the past at a fork in the road
• He talked about Hujurat - diversity with cohesion and not swayed by populism
• He mentioned a missing middle when there are principles at the top and tactics on the ground but effective strategies are lacking
• There is mention of integrity and integration coming from the same root word and integer meaning whole means nothing missing or basically unbroken

Mufti's closing at the end of the 2nd day was special too. The ICCOS team did a little wordcloud of all the words used by the speakers that day and he also connected the dots with a little mindmap or graphic organiser of sorts to help the audience understand the takeaways better. There are my inspirations from the conference and I hope to be a better Muslim educator from the learnings of the event insha Allah.

Update: The next Tuesday the 2 'Mi's presented to the Muis Directorate about our futures gig and got fairly positive feedback from some of the bigshots. The next thing is really how to maximise the learnings from this gig to continue the good work by SPPO moving forward to the 8M3YP and beyond.

https://pcics.padlet.org/syafiqah_mohd_fromtp1/pzldnpnz9jr6xhx9