TODAY
12 February 2016
- RSIS
- Media Mentions
- Unity is the Best Defence against Fundamentalist Tendencies
Unity is the Best Defence against Fundamentalist Tendencies
In a wide-ranging policy speech last month, Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam identified four interconnected challenges to Singapore’s multireligious and multicultural harmony: Direct terrorist attacks, radicalisation of a part of the Muslim population, the Muslim population growing “somewhat distant” from the rest of society and Islamophobia among the non-Muslim communities.
Much analytical ink has been spilled in recent months over the direct physical threat posed to Singapore by the likes of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and its South-east Asian affiliates, exemplified by the recent attacks in Jakarta; and the sharpening concern over young Singaporean Muslims being radicalised, via exposure to slick ISIS ideological narratives online.
Where Mr Shanmugam arguably broke new ground was his candid analysis of the remaining two worrying trends: The apparent social distancing of some Muslims from the wider community and anti-Muslim prejudice, fanned by 15 years of the ongoing war against violent Islamist extremism. The notion of “social distancing”, in particular, deserves further unpacking.
RSIS / GPO / Print / Online
