Absolutism: What Anti-PAP People Have In Common With Islamic Extremists!

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

SINGAPORE: Second Home Affairs Minister Masagos Zulkifli has expressed concern over what he calls "a phenomenon" that has crept into the Malay-Muslim community here.

He was referring to people who have a very rigid view of Islam, who he calls "absolutists".
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He made the comments in a wide-ranging exclusive interview with MediaCorp, where he also touched on the battle against extremist ideologies online.

Terror experts Channel NewsAsia spoke with said absolutism is often the seed of extremist ideology.

"If we study the characteristics of extremist ideology, we find that absolutism is one of the key characteristics of extremist ideology,” said Dr Mohamed Ali, vice-chair of the Religious Rehabilitation Group.

“From absolutism, we can also find other characteristics such as literalism, and also a sense of exclusiveness. So when it comes to absolutism, these individuals, they believe that their teachings and their way is the only rightful way and they do not accept the teachings of others. This will lead to a sense of exclusiveness within themselves.

“I think this is important in the context of Singapore that Muslims must not be absolutist as Islam encourages its adherents to accept the teachings of others, whether it's inter-faith or intra-faith. So Muslims must be open to other thoughts, other ideas and embrace diversity and pluralism, especially it is very important in the context of a multi-religious society like Singapore."

‘NO SINGLE PATH TO GOD’

Religious scholars also pointed out that Islam has never been a monolithic religion and its varying forms have always been practised peacefully in Singapore

"In Islam there is no single path to God, in terms of Islamic practices, we can see that there are four schools of thoughts, four Islamic jurisprudence, and this is a good example to show that Muslims can practise Islam in various ways," said Dr Mohamed.

Mr Masagos added: "Islam has never been monolithic and particularly in Singapore, we have always been living together and we have been in harmony not just within ourselves but also with other people. There are external conflicts that happen between sects in other places that we should not allow to take root here. They fight for a different reason. They fight for a different historical heritage. We should not just duplicate them here."

In the Singapore context, Mr Masagos said the community needs to address these differences. He said: "The differences among the Muslims are something the Muslims must address themselves. We have to look at what is important for the community, what principles we should hold as an exemplary Muslim minority community that others can look up to.

“Therefore we must know what principles must rule us. Is tolerance important? Is acceptance of a plural society important? Is participating in a modern economy important? If these are all important to us, then we must set the norms for ourselves and therefore those who do not, we must try to bring them back to these norms."

PLAYING CATCH UP

Mr Masagos also said that more can be done to counter extremist ideologies online. He said there is a global effort underway but admits that it is pretty much playing catch up now with the Islamic State (IS) militant group's sophisticated presence, in cyberspace.

"It's important for the Muslim community, not just in Singapore, in fact the whole world, to really think about how to present Islam in an attractive way to counter the attractiveness of the information that is put up by the proponents of ISIS doctrine,” said Mr Masagos, using an alternative acronym for IS.

“However, there is also the need to also counter the doctrine that is put forth by ISIS and also in an attractive way. There are some sites that do this but not enough and our youths have to be made aware that there are alternative views, counter-views to what ISIS is proposing.

“Unfortunately, it's a battle of ideologies; it's a battle of who's more attractive and more convincing. Therefore at the end of the day, we cannot run away from the fact that parents need to be responsible to watch out for their children."

Some organisations in Singapore, like the Religious Rehabilitation Group, have already started ramping up their online strategies. There are efforts like the campaign called "Make Sense", run by Islamic religious organisation the Religious and Educational League of Radin Mas.

"We train our asatizahs or teachers to speak the language of our youths, online and offline,” said Mr Mohamed Shah Reza, the organisation’s head of marketing and communications. “In our classes and our online platform, we also take extra effort to redefine the idea of idealism, the idea of fair play, the idea of championing causes."

The group has also taken the battle of ideologies offline through youth-centred activities like an Instagram campaign, getting young people to "Make Sense" about what they read online.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/....html?cid=fbsg


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