Sunday, December 09, 2007
11:59 PM
Talk on religious extremism
Edit 1 (10/12 6.00pm): Finished this post.
Just came back from this talk at Bradell Heights Community Centre a few hours ago. I had to go for this event as a KI student could not make it. And as Mr Seah (teacher-in-charge of debate and journalism) has expected, I really got an enlightening experience our of this talk.
I was joined by Sumaiyah and Shin Wei. They were there on the capacity of a KI student and a member of the Scholars Development Programme respectively.
This talk was primarily conducted by a Ms Jolene Anne Jerard. She is a research analyst at the International Center for Terrorism Research and Political Violence. Its a located at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Lol, I have never heard of that organisation.
To start the ball rolling, the guest of honour, Mr Seah Kian Peng (Not my teacher), MP for Marine Parade GRC and advisor to Marine Parade GRC GROs gave an opening speech. He touched on the need for continued emphasis on racial harmony in Singapore.
He cited examples of recent cases that happened overseas like the Indian (Hindu) Community in Malaysia holding protests against the governement. And a case of a British teacher in Sudan allowing the children to name a teddy bear Mohammed.
Here is when the Inter-Racial and Religious Confidence Circles (IRCC) comes in. This organisation was established in 2002 after the 911 incident. Its aim is to foster friendships and trust between people from the multiple races and religions. It also serves as a common platform for ethnic and religious leaders to discuss about issues and how best to dessiminate information to their groups.
The IRCC also serves and a community engagement programme to help build up our social fabric and resilience. It is also prepared to handle crisis by providing accurate information to the various groups. Next was the talk by Ms Jerard.
She started off by emphasising through an analogy that terrorism is a symptom and extremism is the disease. Hence in order to solve the problems caused by misinterpretations of religions, we have to go to the root.
And yet as we see today, few governments in the world actively got to the root of the problem. Preferring to adopt a surface tactical approach by effectively clamping down on terrorist operations. But the ideas pushed by the extremists will not go away by simply bombing or killing their members. Despite this, The Global War on Terror as led by US President George Bush is heading in this direction.
The rise in terrorism today was due to several factors, the End of the Cold War, widening gap between the west and the rest of the World and the break down of secular ideologies. These were the main factors that drove people to embrace their faiths to greater depths.
We must also keep in our minds that terrorism should never be associated with any particular religions. Especially today, given that many terrorist attacks are committed by Muslims. Some people believe that Islam promotes violence. This is not true. Even people from other religions such as Christianity have committed acts of violence in the name of their faith. But that is not to say Christians are inherently violent too. These people who commit such acts are simply misguided and have misinterpreted what their religion preaches.
So what has Singapore done to ensure that these incidents do not happen at all? It has set up The Maintenance of Religion Harmony Act and formed the Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG). The former is self-explanatory. The latter's objective is to counter any ideological misinterpretations preached by Muslim extremists. It also provides a resource panel for law-enforcers to better understand the thoughts of a suspected Muslim terrorist.
QnA session. MP Mr Seah (second from left) participates actively.
Mr Kwek (principal of NYJC) replying to a question posed by a member of the audience.
Appointment Ceremony. Mr Kwek is now officially a member of the IRCC!
Can you spot him in this group photo?
Surprise shot of the stunned Sumaiyah and Shin Wei
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Just came back from this talk at Bradell Heights Community Centre a few hours ago. I had to go for this event as a KI student could not make it. And as Mr Seah (teacher-in-charge of debate and journalism) has expected, I really got an enlightening experience our of this talk.
I was joined by Sumaiyah and Shin Wei. They were there on the capacity of a KI student and a member of the Scholars Development Programme respectively.
This talk was primarily conducted by a Ms Jolene Anne Jerard. She is a research analyst at the International Center for Terrorism Research and Political Violence. Its a located at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Lol, I have never heard of that organisation.
To start the ball rolling, the guest of honour, Mr Seah Kian Peng (Not my teacher), MP for Marine Parade GRC and advisor to Marine Parade GRC GROs gave an opening speech. He touched on the need for continued emphasis on racial harmony in Singapore.
He cited examples of recent cases that happened overseas like the Indian (Hindu) Community in Malaysia holding protests against the governement. And a case of a British teacher in Sudan allowing the children to name a teddy bear Mohammed.
Here is when the Inter-Racial and Religious Confidence Circles (IRCC) comes in. This organisation was established in 2002 after the 911 incident. Its aim is to foster friendships and trust between people from the multiple races and religions. It also serves as a common platform for ethnic and religious leaders to discuss about issues and how best to dessiminate information to their groups.
The IRCC also serves and a community engagement programme to help build up our social fabric and resilience. It is also prepared to handle crisis by providing accurate information to the various groups. Next was the talk by Ms Jerard.
She started off by emphasising through an analogy that terrorism is a symptom and extremism is the disease. Hence in order to solve the problems caused by misinterpretations of religions, we have to go to the root.And yet as we see today, few governments in the world actively got to the root of the problem. Preferring to adopt a surface tactical approach by effectively clamping down on terrorist operations. But the ideas pushed by the extremists will not go away by simply bombing or killing their members. Despite this, The Global War on Terror as led by US President George Bush is heading in this direction.
The rise in terrorism today was due to several factors, the End of the Cold War, widening gap between the west and the rest of the World and the break down of secular ideologies. These were the main factors that drove people to embrace their faiths to greater depths.
We must also keep in our minds that terrorism should never be associated with any particular religions. Especially today, given that many terrorist attacks are committed by Muslims. Some people believe that Islam promotes violence. This is not true. Even people from other religions such as Christianity have committed acts of violence in the name of their faith. But that is not to say Christians are inherently violent too. These people who commit such acts are simply misguided and have misinterpreted what their religion preaches.
So what has Singapore done to ensure that these incidents do not happen at all? It has set up The Maintenance of Religion Harmony Act and formed the Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG). The former is self-explanatory. The latter's objective is to counter any ideological misinterpretations preached by Muslim extremists. It also provides a resource panel for law-enforcers to better understand the thoughts of a suspected Muslim terrorist.
QnA session. MP Mr Seah (second from left) participates actively.
Mr Kwek (principal of NYJC) replying to a question posed by a member of the audience.He was posed a question about what has the educational system in Singapore done to imbue our children with the correct values, especially towards other races and religions. The answer as we all know it, is through the use of National Education (NE).
In short, its a set of teaching materials integrated into our curriculum. Its designed to reach out to students about sensitive issues of race and religion. This is required as students rarely discuss such issues in normal day-to-day conversations. Its does more than just make us aware of the issues at hand. It is a platform for us to share our views and learn how to respect and tolerate people from other religions.
Another question posed was about the common misconception that terrorists are poor and uneducated. This used to be largely true in the past. But in recent times, we are seeing a new breed of terrorists that have real professions such as doctors and engineers. A growing income gap cannot be used as a factor to explain the rise in terrorist activity.
Finally, I raised a "cheeky" question. I asked if Singapore has a strong enough screening process for foreign talents and workers. This is as the government is on a drive to attract skilled and unskilled workers from abroad. Given that this immigrants bypass our education system and integrate directly into our society, would there be a possibility that they may inadvertently "create trouble"? Or how about a religious extremist "disguising" himself as a foreign talent to come and preach his ideas.
Well, according to him, Singapore has one of the strictest screening regimes in the world. Despite this, it is still possible for a determined person to slip through. That is why our local community must have the right set of values to not be influenced by these extremists.
On a lighter note, he mentioned that if the government were to detect such activities from an immigrant, it will "pounce" on him and do what is necessary to ensure he will never repeat it again. However he emphasised that foreign talents are still vital for the Singapore economy. We should not shut our doors just because of a few bad sheep.
In short, its a set of teaching materials integrated into our curriculum. Its designed to reach out to students about sensitive issues of race and religion. This is required as students rarely discuss such issues in normal day-to-day conversations. Its does more than just make us aware of the issues at hand. It is a platform for us to share our views and learn how to respect and tolerate people from other religions.
Another question posed was about the common misconception that terrorists are poor and uneducated. This used to be largely true in the past. But in recent times, we are seeing a new breed of terrorists that have real professions such as doctors and engineers. A growing income gap cannot be used as a factor to explain the rise in terrorist activity.
Finally, I raised a "cheeky" question. I asked if Singapore has a strong enough screening process for foreign talents and workers. This is as the government is on a drive to attract skilled and unskilled workers from abroad. Given that this immigrants bypass our education system and integrate directly into our society, would there be a possibility that they may inadvertently "create trouble"? Or how about a religious extremist "disguising" himself as a foreign talent to come and preach his ideas.
Well, according to him, Singapore has one of the strictest screening regimes in the world. Despite this, it is still possible for a determined person to slip through. That is why our local community must have the right set of values to not be influenced by these extremists.
On a lighter note, he mentioned that if the government were to detect such activities from an immigrant, it will "pounce" on him and do what is necessary to ensure he will never repeat it again. However he emphasised that foreign talents are still vital for the Singapore economy. We should not shut our doors just because of a few bad sheep.
Appointment Ceremony. Mr Kwek is now officially a member of the IRCC!
Can you spot him in this group photo?
Surprise shot of the stunned Sumaiyah and Shin WeiSo that wraps up this event. In conclusion, I really did learn a lot from this talk. Of course most of the stuff that was "preached" had been taught through our NE lessons. Its always helpful to refresh our mindsets on the need to maintain religious harmony in Singapore. After all, all it takes to tear our tightly-woven social fabric is for a single incident to happen.
