![\"\"](\"http:\/\/muzlimbuzz.sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Muslim-minorities.png\" "\\"Muslim")
<\/a><\/p>\nSpeaking about the different perspectives to what defines a minority in a country, he talks about the touchy implementation of\u00a0fiqh al-aqalliyyat <\/em>or Islamic Jurisprudence for minorities where fiqh <\/em>is applied based on the demographics on a country.<\/p>\n Expressing his views on the implementation of such rulings, Professor Sinanovic affirms that a traditional approach would be more applicable while reinforcing the fact that a Muslim should maintain the noble foundations of Islamic law or Islam in general regardless of situations.<\/p>\n Upon reviewing some common weaknesses in Muslim communities and countries, he finds that stating what is Halal <\/em>or Haram <\/em>would immediately put an outcome <\/strong>to a situation rather than a giving it a chance to a beginning and that shouldn\u2019t be the central focus of the leaders in a country. <\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot reduce a group of people into just a status,\u201d he said, in relevance to the implementation of fiqh al-aqalliyyat<\/em>.<\/p>\n Moving on to the prospects of Integration<\/strong>, he explains how Islam as it is would have naturally made communities integrate but the Muslims today choose to approach it one-sidedly.\u00a0 Communication between the Muslim community and other communities is key when it comes to integration and in the context where a council is representative of the Muslims who are a minority in a country, it is important that the communication with other communities establish the fact that the council possibly, could not have been representative of all the Muslims.<\/p>\n \u201cMuslims have the right in a democratic society to ask their government questions and ther government has the right to ask Muslims to step up and be better.\u201d<\/p>\n Gathering perspectives from North America where Muslims are largely African Americans as well as immigrants and comparing them with those from Europe and Southeast Asia, he raised the issue of the tendency for communities to view Muslims from a security perspective, in reference to the existence of such stereotypes especially after 9\/11.<\/p>\n Dissecting the Southeast Asia region, he claims that Singapore has a similar prospect with North America, whereas the other countries such as Philippines, Vietnam and Myanmar which also has Muslims as minorities seem to have adopted a prospect more similar to Europe.<\/p>\n There is a higher percentage of Muslims in Europe. However in terms of prospects, they are lacking in terms of education, capital and community leaders, which is unlike the case in North America or in the US.<\/p>\n Moving on to the rather taboo-ed aspect of integration, Professor Sinanovic\u2019s interpretation and understanding of it refers to having full participation in a society but with the ability to maintain an adequate sense of individualism.<\/p>\n Too often has the word \u2018integration\u2019 been closely entailed with \u2018assimilation\u2019, however he insists that Muslims should resist the latter, especially since Muslims here are being accepted, acknowledged and even institutionalized.<\/p>\n \u201cThe question here now is not whether Singaporean Muslims are integrated but rather how to improve their standing in society.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Having studied the outlook of Muslims here, he finds that we are integrated but at the same time acknowledged the need for us to improve our standing in society so that our voices can be heard to get what is rightfully ours.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are some weaknesses within our community that if the government helps support us a little would help us a lot.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n To help improve the state of the community in terms of societal standings, Professor Sinanovic gave three substantial key points, and that is to have sustained work as well as putting in the effort and investing capital into community-building institutions such as the Masjids or universities.<\/p>\n Some elements that would also further improve the status of Muslims would be education, participation and co-operation.<\/p>\n He urges the younger generation to educate themselves for when the future calls for them to stand up for the community they would be able to bring up a strong argument, which will eventually lead to justice with which he brought up an insightful quote by Dr Martin Luther King Jr.<\/strong> :<\/p>\n \u201cThe arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Every Muslim has the same innate capability as any other person, and they need to actualize that potential.<\/p>\n \u201cYou really need to put in effort\u201d<\/strong>, he would say.<\/p>\n Concluding the session with the aspect of co-operation that is an element also needed to help improve the status of Muslims in a society, he calls for us to witness our Islam for we should be a community that mediates amongst the different communities to connect them together.<\/p>\n [quote]\u201cSit down and talk to church and temple leaders. Discuss problems and see how we can engage everyone in doing righteous deeds.\u201d[\/quote]<\/strong><\/p>\n He highly encouraged Muslims to partake in inter-faith activities, for it is also the essence of Islam, to bring peace within everybody and especially in a community.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen others see what you can do, they will stand up for you. You can\u2019t stand up on your own. You need helpers and when people see that you are a good people, they will help you.\u201d The aspects and arguments raised during this session clearly shows the tremendous potential our Muslim community has, and although perhaps there is a level of rigidity involved in shining that potential in such a society \u2013 nothing is impossible, for we have with us what makes everything possibly and that is, Islam.<\/p>\n [divider]<\/p>\n Nazeera Mohamed<\/strong> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [box_dark]What: Talk “Muslim Minorities and the Prospects of Integration: \u00a0Perspectives from Europe, North America and Southeast Asia” When: 31st May 2012 Who:\u00a0Professor Ermin Sinanovic By:\u00a0Centre for Research on Islamic and Malay Affairs (RIMA)[\/box_dark] Too often in the diversity of communities we have here has the word \u201cminority\u201d and \u201cintegration\u201d been misused and misunderstood. During this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[1623,10,527,1622,1621,819,711],"class_list":["post-3201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-event-review","tag-amp","tag-featured","tag-integration","tag-islam-as-a-minority","tag-muslim-minorities","tag-singapore-muslims","tag-singaporean-muslims"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3201"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3216,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3201\/revisions\/3216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cIslam is the ultimate centre culture now in the West. Islam has actually become so cool that it has been viewed with prejudice.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nWith education, Muslims have a bonus point aside from academics for Islam gives everyone a rounded personality which would help us deal with people accordingly. In terms of participation, he also encourages Muslims to be active in the community, particularly in getting them to engage with political leaders albeit the skepticality it involves. His reason was that only by doing so would be able to raise our communal concerns to the right people who need to hear them.
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\n\u201cIf you\u2019re not at the table, forget about eating from it. If you don\u2019t take that seat at the table, someone else is going to take it and eat from it. So you have to think about it.\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n<\/strong>
\nIt is probably going to be a long gradual process to rectify or improvise certain aspects of our community, but that shouldn\u2019t stop us from making the first step. <\/strong><\/p>\n
\nA\u00a0flawed servant with a voice to and for trust.\u00a0Your sister in\u00a0faith, your friend in deen and your\u00a0Ummah in congregation.<\/em><\/p>\n