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'Islamic' does not mean Muslim-majority Published on May 11, 2013 Singapore may not have a Muslim majority, but it is "Islamic" in the way it conducts its affairs, says a study. -- ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI By Mohd Alami Musa For The Straits Times I RECENTLY attended the International Conference on Islam, Civilisation and Peace in Jakarta. It was jointly organised by the religious affairs ministries of Indonesia and Jordan. The objective was to widen the discourse on the Amman Message to include this part of the world. The Amman Message is the initiative of King Abdullah II of Jordan. In essence, it is a rallying call for Muslims around the world to unite and promote tolerance. It is the handiwork of some 200 scholars from more than 50 countries and is well supported by key Muslim political leaders. I felt fortunate to be part of the Jakarta conference. Many good papers were presented. One presenter who received much attention was Professor Komaruddin Hidayat, rector of the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University in Jakarta. He is one of the foremost thinkers in Indonesia today, respected for his progressive views. In discussing Islam in the world today, he cited a study done by George Washington University's Dr Scheherazade S. Rehman and Professor Hossein Askari. The study examined "How Islamic are Islamic Countries". A report on the study was published in the Global Economy Journal (Vol 10, Issue 2, Article 2). The Rehman-Askari study defined an "Islamicity Index" (which I summarise below). They argued that the index is generic enough to be applied to all countries - not just those with a Muslim majority. They then measured the "Islamicity" of 208 countries, which included 68 Muslim-majority countries. The audience was amused when Prof Hidayat announced that Jordan ranked 77th. They laughed at themselves when they were informed that Indonesia was ranked 144th. I marvel at the way Indonesians take rankings light-heartedly. We in Singapore will probably be stressed and will quickly want to know what is wrong - either with the report, or with us. Immediately after the presentation, I got hold of the report, curious to know where Singapore was ranked. We were ranked 37th. And guess what? We were above all 68 Muslim-majority countries. The "most Islamic" of the latter was ranked 38th and also in our region. I felt proud that we were both part of the Mabims Framework - the Informal Meeting of Ministers of Religious Affairs of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. I perused the report to get a better sense of how credible the study was. As I was doing this, two past experiences came to my mind. The first was a conversation I had with a Saudi scholar who was on an official visit to Singapore. A member of the Shura Council - the highest law-making body in the country - he told me over dinner that the laws of Singapore are "syariah" based. I was pleasantly surprised to hear such a comment from a traditional scholar. So, I asked him to elaborate. He explained that our laws have been effective in ensuring many outcomes that are virtuous in the eyes of Islam. He quoted examples of such outcomes which included public cleanliness, the green environment, disciplined behaviour and low corruption. The second conversation was with a member of another Shura Council - this time from Bahrain. After hosting him at our Harmony Centre, he held my hand firmly and said that he had just "re-discovered" Islam. The Islam that he saw in Singapore - interacting actively with people of other faiths, promoting inclusive social living and the emphasis on adapting to the modern world - he said, manifested the true spirit of the religion. The message that I received from these two scholars was that a country need not be a Muslim-majority nation or have Islam as a state religion in order to be "Islamic" in the conduct of its affairs. This also reminded me of a profound remark by the renowned Egyptian reformer Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905) who spent six years in exile in the West (Paris and Britain). Upon returning to the East (his homeland), he remarked that "I went to the West and saw Islam, but no Muslims. I got back to the East and saw Muslims, but no Islam". I was therefore not very surprised with Singapore's high ranking in the study, even before reading the entire report. Dr Rehman and Prof Askari developed an Islamicity index which is a formula incorporating four sub-indices. These were the Economic Islamicity index, the Legal and Governance Islamicity index, the Human and Political Rights Islamicity index and, finally, the International Relations Islamicity index. A total of 67 proxies were used to measure the four indices. According to the report, "these proxies are standard practices of good governance and good economic, financial, political, legal and social policies applicable to any country regardless of religious orientation". Dr Rehman and Prof Askari argued that the proxies were also good indicators to assess whether a Muslim country had complied with Islamic teachings in managing its economy, social life, legal and political systems. For example, in ascertaining how Islamic countries are, with regard to their government and legal systems, the study examined factors like the absence of violence, the rule of law, control of corruption, government effectiveness, accountability and political stability. These are traits of good Islamic behaviour and they are in line with today's best practices and recommended institutional structures. Moreover, according to the report, "the conception of human and economic development in Islam is similar to the modern conception in the West". At the Jakarta conference, Prof Hidayat qualified his remarks by noting that the Islamicity index measured only the worldly dimensions of a country's Islamicity. It did not incorporate the spiritual dimensions. The ranking of Muslim countries, he acknowledged, would be higher if spiritual dimensions were included in the index. Examples of the spiritual factors to be ranked could include the country's support for religious education and the number of mosques built. But I prefer not to be apologetic about this. To me, countries will truly manifest Islamicity if they can succeed in helping their citizens live a good life. I am reminded of a story told to me when I first visited Syria in 2007. It was about the late Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro (1915-2004) who used to be the Grand Mufti of Syria. He once made an official visit to an Asian country where the hosts wanted to impress him by showing the large number of mosques that they had built. But Sheikh Kuftaro surprised his hosts at the end of his visit by expressing sadness. He explained that he saw many minarets but saw so few chimneys (of factories). To the Sheikh, Islamicity is not only about the spiritual (mosques) but it is also about successfully developing the economy that promoted work so that we will have a good life in this world. Singapore ranked well in the Islamicity index. If each of our fellow nine major religions developed its own religiosity index, I am certain that the outcome would be similar. The writer is president of the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore. ------------------------------------ Post message: prole...@egroups.com Subscribe : proletar-subscr...@egroups.com Unsubscribe : proletar-unsubscr...@egroups.com List owner : proletar-ow...@egroups.com Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! 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