Encountering Islam: The Politics of Religious Identities in Southeast Asia

13. Issues of Islam and the Muslims in Singapore Post-9/11: An Analysis of the Dominant Perspective

13 ISSUES ON ISLAM AND THE MUSLIMS IN SINGAPORE POST-9/11: AN ANALYSIS OF THE DOMINANT PERSPECTIVE Noor Aisha Abdul Rahman The 11 September attack, the Bali bombings, and arrest of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) operatives in Singapore reveal once again the centrality of ethnicity in Singapore’s ideology of survival. Political discourse on these issues resurfaced concerns for the fragility of Singapore’s ethnic relations and its vulnerability as a cohesive nation in which the Chinese comprise the majority (74.1 per cent), while the Malays (13.4 per cent), Indians (9.2 per cent) and a diverse array of other ethnic groups officially categorized as “Others” (3.3 per cent) constitute the minorities (Department of Statistics 2010, p. 3). While historical factors in the management of race relations have contributed to persistent concerns over the issue, Singapore’s position as a small nation in the midst of two predominantly Malay/Muslim neighbours with entrenched communal politics vis-à-vis their more economically dominant Chinese populations has exacerbated it.1 The 9/11 attack and its aftermath may have also compounded the problem. Being the only country 336 Noor Aisha Abdul Rahman in the region that supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq, fear of terrorists’ reprisals could have induced the need to balance its foreign policy with ethnic relations management. Hence, while the discourse centring on the nation’s vulnerability and the overriding emphasis on national cohesion is directed at all Singaporeans, it is the Malay community, 98.7 per cent of whom are Muslims (Department of Statistics 2011, p. 14), that has generally been the focus of attention. The Malays’ cultural, linguistic and particularly religious affinity with Singapore’s neighbours has had implications on the way they are perceived and managed politically. Islam’s transnational character and its impact on Malay identity and culture have given rise to the presumption of deep spiritual bond between Muslims in the region and globally. It has conditioned speculation of their potentially divided loyalty to the nation in the face of aggression by its neighbours. The global Muslim resurgence that has emerged in the last four decades or so, bringing along with it greater demands for Islamization of state and society by specific interest groups within the Muslim world and in the region, has heightened this concern. These could have also been compounded by the more recent intense focus on conflicts, violence and terrorism involving Muslims perpetuated in the name of Islam both within and beyond the region. This chapter contends that the tendency to perceive these political events in ethnic terms is conditioned by the dominance of the culturalist approach. While not confined to the understanding of Islam and Muslims per se, in the context of 11 September, the approach thrusts the Malay/Muslim community into the national spotlight. It is maintained that while 9/11 is not the defining event that marked a shift towards the strong influence of the culturalist approach in understanding Muslims, its occurrence and the events that subsequently unfolded, including the discovery of homegrown terrorists, have intensified it. Not only has the approach influenced the conceptualization of the problems of radicalism and terrorism, it has also impacted the type of strategies and measures employed in countering them. The chapter further contends that the dominance of the approach has also conditioned reactions and initiatives undertaken by the elite within the Muslim community itself. Muslims’ response to the problems so far mirrors the culturalist approach in as much as they are conditioned by it. The chapter’s overriding interest is to examine the implications of the dominance of this perspective on the problem of social cohesion and the extent to which it serves to alleviate the problem. Muslims in Singapore post-9/11 337 TRAITS OF THE CULTURALIST APPROACH The 9/11 attack and the ensuing events that emerged thereafter revived national attention on the fragility of Singapore’s ethnic cohesion. As Goh Chok Tong, then Prime Minister, declared, Our greatest worry is the threat to our security, and to our racial and religious harmony following the discovery of terrorist activities in our country.… Should a terrorist threat in Singapore by some extreme group ever succeed, it would do untold harm. Not only would it cause the loss of life and property, but far worse, it would result in profound misunderstanding and distrust between the different communities.2 While forging social cohesion is a major challenge...