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In the post 9–11 world, Muslims have had to grapple with various challenges, which often involved justifying their faith to others within secular contexts. The matter is more acute, if not existential, for Muslim minority populations. This paper analyzes attempts by the Singaporean Muslim community to deal with a post 9–11 world, through a development of the concept of wasatiyah (justly balanced). It investigates key initiatives by two important players – the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS), and the Singapore Islamic Scholars and Religious Teachers Association (Pergas) – that had significant influence in shaping the wasatiyah vision in Singapore. We make two arguments: (1) The wasatiyah discourse represents a longstanding effort by Muslims to contextualize and appropriate traditional Islamic concepts to make them relevant to the contemporary world; and (2) The two approaches adopted by the organizations in question highlight the strengths and weaknesses of initiatives being propagated by state-affiliated and non-state bodies respectively. The study is situated within the literature on religion and politics, counter-ideology and state-Muslim relations. Continue reading
Click here to read or download the article. Synopsis “Dr Muhammad Haniff Hassan examines the notion and practice of Bai`ah Al-Mawt (pledge of death) among contemporary jihadist groups through the lens of Islamic Sunni intellectual tradition and security studies. His work has three important implications for the Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) initiatives. The author notes that conceptually and … Continue reading
This article is co-authored with Asst. Prof. Walid Jumblatt Abdullah and published in Islam and Civilisational Renewal Journal (vol. 12, no. 1, June 2021). Click here to download and access the article. Click here for original source. Abstract Muslim-minority communities throughout the world grapple with the contextualisation of Islam in the modern world. Islamic religious scholars, or the ulama, have to … Continue reading
This article was presented as keynote speech at Ulama Convention III 2021 organised by Pergas and published in Muktamar Ulama 2021 Conference Proceedings. The article seeks to elucidate a wasaṭiyah approach to understanding what constitutes theological absolutism in Islamic theology. It begins with establishing a clear understanding of absolute and subjective truth as a foundation that would differentiate … Continue reading
By Muhammad Haniff Hassan This article was published with some editing under the title, “Racism Has No Place in Islam”, in MuslimSG, on 28 July 2021, at here. Recent months have seen several racism related incidents that went viral on social media and received coverage by mainstream media outlets. Incidents such as the video of a woman … Continue reading
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Click here to read and download the review. Click here for more information about the book.
This article is co-authored with Asst. Prof. Walid Jumblatt Abdullah and published in Islam and Civilisational Renewal Journal (vol. 12, no. 1, June 2021). Click here to download and access the article. Click here for original source. Abstract Muslim-minority communities throughout the world grapple with the contextualisation of Islam in the modern world. Islamic religious scholars, or the ulama, … Continue reading
This article is published in Karyawan, April 2021. Click here for the original source. Click here for PDF hardcopy version. THE MARRAKESH DECLARATIONThe Marrakesh Declaration is a culmination of an initiative led by the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies under the leadership of Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah and the sponsorship of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government. Sheikh … Continue reading