Debating Secularism: Singaporean Muslims in a

Secular State
Ridhwan Mohd Basor

As a student of the religious institution for more than a decade ago, I was taught that
Islam is not compatible with secularism. Particularly in the education aspect, there
were a clear demarcation of what is categorized as secular knowledge and what is
regarded as religious knowledge. The so-called secular knowledge which
essentially refers to the knowledge of science, mathematics, English language and
humanities are seen to be more inferior as compared to the superiority of the
religious knowledge such as the knowledge of Fiqh, Usuluddin, and Arabic
language. Studying Economics was at one point of time being shunned upon for
including the topic of interest which clearly was regarded as haram from the fiqh
perspective. There were little attempts in the education system to establish the
relationship between science and faith, between humanities and fiqh. It was as if there
were clear demarcation to what constitute the realm of the profane, what should be in
the realm of sacred.

However, a deeper questioning of this premise will unleash the understanding that
secularism and faith may not be entirely mutually exlusive. Religion and secularism
may not necessirily be a zero-sum-game. There has always been a debate between
Islam and secularism, between Muslims and secular state. This intense debates has led
to various trajectories as Muslims seek to respond to the challenges of the modern and
post-modern world.

The state of disenchanment with the modern secular state, led some members of our
faith community to seek for a return for the medieval Islamic polity.They see that the
historical realization of the political model as the only ideal state where Muslims can
live in harmony with their faith. There are also those who believe that ideally
Muslims are supposed to live in an Islamic state, regardless of what the term means,
as living in a secular state place one in the constant state of perpetual legal
exceptionalism (darurah). Politically, various state actors have declared their nation as
an Islamic state, including the designated terrorist network, the Islamic State of Iraq
and Syria (ISIS). Usually these claims are made to legitimize their authority by
making reference to Islam in pleasing the relavent political power base for their
survival. Ideologically however, there is no single definition of what is an Islamic
state. The concept itself is not argubaly not inherently Divinely-ordained, however
that is not the subject of the discussion of this article.

This article is interested in understanding the notion of secularism and how its
application affect the context of Singaporean Muslims. Secularism is not a homogenic
concept. The application of the secular ethos may mean differently in different nation-
states. For instance, while the United States maintained the seperation between
Church and State, it is not necessarily means there is seperation of religion and
politics. In fact, religion has been a dominant force in the Ameircan politics including
its symbolism. The Senate and House of Representatives will begin their proceedings
by invoking prayers to God. On the hand, in the United Kingdom, there is no
seperation between the Church and the State as the Queen who is the Head of the
State is also the Head of the Church of England. Nonetheless, the UK politics are
generally free from religious intereference. In contrast to French society, secularism
are being uphold in a more aggressive manner as the lacicite

When Pope Benedict XVI made a state visit to the United Kingdom in September
2010, he reminded the British society not to lose their faith and urged them to resist
"more aggressive forms of secularism". (Jones, Hooper and Kington 2010). He also
launched an apparent attack on "atheist extremism" and expressed dismayed over the
exclusion of God, faith and virtue from the public sphere. He then delivered his call
for the return of religion to the public sphere and pleads the British people to consider
the legitimate role of religion in offering positive developments for the modern
multicultural UK society. The issue raised by Pope Benedict clearly highlights the
diminishing role of religions, if not just Catholicism in the British society. The clash
between faith and secularism, between religion and atheism are pervasive across
todays modern society. The atheist extremism as termed by the Pope or also known
today the New Atheism are strong forces against religion-at-large which set to
eliminate religion all together. This is in contrast to old atheists who were generally
disbelieve in the existence of God but were not zeal in eliminating faith. Hence, the
challenges highlighted by Pope in his speeches in the UK addressed the real
challenges faced by religious group in todays modern world. Popular atheist scholars
like Richard Dawkins are getting more aggressive in his opposition to religion.

Nevertheless, the opposition towards religion and the advent of aggressive

secularism today is not exactly a new phenomenon that emerges out of nowhere.
Instead, this phenomenon of anti-religion surfaced as reactionary forces against the
attitude and conduct of the religious establishments in medieval Europe. Several
incidents had taken place that resulted into religion taking a back seat in todays
modern society of the West. The French revolution, which essentially gave birth to
secularism, the reform movement of Martin Luther, which resulted into the
formation of Protestantism, the emergence anti-religion thinkers like Karl Marx and
Friedrich Nietzsche were all part of the reactionary moves against the religious
establishment, especially the authority of the Catholic Church. In one-way or another,
the Church tends to assume oppressive authority against the people where hegemony
of religious thought was in the hands of the Catholic priests. At the same time, abuses
and corruption of the Church led to the institution of the Church loses its legitimacy
and subsequently slowly diminishing its authority over the people.

Probably a riposte to this trends of thought is due to our entrenched outlook of the
world. We may continue to see the world in binary, an evolution of how the classical
system regard Dar al-Islam and Dar al-Harb, the Muslims today may apply it today to