Singapore would become the “Antioch of Asia”
March 26, 2018 12:10 AM   Subscribe

Lou Engle: An American Threatens a Christian-Muslim Divide in Singapore Benjamin Lim investigates the inroads political American evangelicalism have made in his country as he attended the sixth annual Kingdom Invasion.

excerpt:
I have come to Kingdom Invasion to investigate whether Engle’s speech would be as controversial as the ones that have cemented his reputation, and especially since he’s featured prominently on the conference’s website as a guest speaker.

Sitting in the audience, I cannot believe my ears when it actually happens.

Immediately, it occurs to me, “Isn’t the mention of other faiths at a religious event sacrilegious in Singapore?” If an imam had made comments about Christianity at a Muslim conference, no doubt there would be an uproar.

Last year, an Indian imam was fined and deported to his home country for making offensive remarks about Christianity and Judaism during a Friday sermon. Yet here is Lou Engle, aggressively stoking the emotions of the audience, almost spitting as he singles out ‘Muslims’.

The context is incredibly suspicious; he seems to suggest that Islam is a threat to Christianity, and that there needs to be an urgency to curb it.

Attendees, many of them Singaporeans who have pledged themselves to be one united people regardless of religion, applaud to show their apparent affirmation for this need to counter Islam.


Maintaining social harmony is important in Singapore, and for that reason, religious issues are categorised and supervised as a sensitive issue, for example, through the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act
posted by cendawanita (28 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
Thanks for posting this. It's a concerning read. One thing I found notable traveling in Malaysia and Singapore was the strong diversity of religious beliefs that I saw. It's disturbing both that a US pastor would be coming over to meddle with that and that there's some tacit support from the Singaporean government on that.
posted by rednikki at 12:40 AM on March 26, 2018 [4 favorites]


yeah, and because the two countries are mirror images to each other, in some ways, what's happening in Singapore can be attributed to the feeling of having to 'shore up' against political islamic conservatism in Malaysia, and also the other neighbouring Muslim-majority countries and regions, like Indonesia, Southern Thailand, Southern Philippines, and Brunei.
posted by cendawanita at 12:46 AM on March 26, 2018 [4 favorites]


I'll add that the laws constraining religious expression in both Malaysia and Singapore would be distasteful to most Americans... except (at least from how I see it working in Singapore) they've made it work for the greater good. For Malaysia... I'm a bit more concerned, considering the laws look like they're swinging in the general direction of Saudi Arabia.

Disclaimer: I'm a Filipino atheist who's traveled to both countries; I'm envious of the general progress that Malaysia and Singapore have achieved because their governments have been able to make some hard decisions, the results of which have soured me considerably on the Philippines' laissez-faire approach to governance.
posted by micketymoc at 1:35 AM on March 26, 2018


isn't antioch the antioch of asia?
posted by pyramid termite at 2:21 AM on March 26, 2018 [31 favorites]


How acceptable is it to be openly atheistic in Singapore?

A friend of mine went to Indonesia some years ago, and generally had a positive experience, except with the caveat that he was asked about his religion and pretended to be Christian. Apparently, he said, if he had told people that he was an atheist, he would be killed and nobody would ever be arrested for his murder; atheists are regarded there much as, say, paedophiles are in most countries.
posted by acb at 3:26 AM on March 26, 2018


Well, ppl won't kill you? It's probably seen as odd but honestly if you're a foreigner then it's just you being your foreigner ways. There's also an association to communism, which is a particular point for the region. It's when you're a local then there's a social cost because it does mean leaving your faith community. But at least it's not like my country where it's illegal esp for the muslim-born (but that relates to apostasy in general. Another one of those colonial legacies the Muslim world loves so much).
posted by cendawanita at 4:29 AM on March 26, 2018 [5 favorites]


It's not illegal to be atheist in Singapore, there are plenty of open atheists there. Countries with majority- Muslim populations in Southeast Asia have more problematic stances against open atheists; in Indonesia, historically, atheists were associated with the Communists who were mostly exterminated after 1965. Malaysia hasn't gone to such extremes, but some government officials have pronounced atheism to be "unconstitutional".
posted by micketymoc at 4:29 AM on March 26, 2018 [6 favorites]


I wish evangelicals would mind there own business.
posted by james33 at 4:30 AM on March 26, 2018 [3 favorites]


Yeah, it's embedded in our five national principles (Rukun Negara) which we modelled after Indonesia's Pancasila, where #1 is belief in God. But that's not the Constitution, more like the pledge of allegiance for the US. And more activist lawyers do point out that atheism is covered under freedom of religion.
posted by cendawanita at 5:03 AM on March 26, 2018 [3 favorites]


One thing I found notable traveling in Malaysia and Singapore was the strong diversity of religious beliefs

This is changing, at least in Malaysia. The country used to be much more secular, but is steadily becoming more Islamic due to government populism and increasing influence from Saudi Arabia. Many members of my Chinese-Malaysian family are moving overseas to get away from the increasingly corrupt and increasingly religious politics.
posted by dazed_one at 8:42 AM on March 26, 2018 [3 favorites]


I was thinking about how to phrase my response. It makes me sad and frustrated that that is a thing, because for Malaysia anyway, the most immediate victims of those policies remain Muslims, while non-Muslims are assured they won't be affected, which isn't even true in a lot of ways, but true enough when it comes to religious enforcement and political horsetrading, unless of course you're a mixed-race person who can pass off as Malay. It's ethnic boundary policing, not religious, because non-Malay-looking Muslims certainly don't get harrassed and arrested at the same rates. So I'm frustrated, because the ones being policed are still Muslims. In a way this might be something ppl more familiar with Western racism might not be able to immediately wrap their head around.

And the understandable reaction of wanting to keep one's head down means 1/3 of the population (which isn't a minority in many ways and in fact a significant stakeholder, which is also another reason why the ethnic boundary policing is so motivated) opts to just not be involved, and they're often made to not be involved. How many times politicians assured non-Muslims that all the regressive family laws will not apply to them? Or the syariah penal code? It's become a weird situation where Malay-Muslim women might be part of a political majority (tenuously also a ethnic majority, because really, Malays barely made it to 50% until we count the native Borneo/East Malaysia ethnicities*) but they suffer the worst due to the fact they're subject to Syariah laws when it comes to rights of inheritance and their rights as wives. When civil law is making strides. Yet, can I count on non-Muslim women to fight for issues to do with Muslim women's rights? I'm lucky to know such people in my life, but they're political activists to begin with.

Not to mention the aforementioned Syariah penal code, which impacts all Muslims. You know, like cases of Muslims being arrested for drinking? The religious officers literally don't bother you if you look Chinese. Of course it also means mixed-looking ppl like me live a double-edged life. Maybe I'll never be Muslim enough but it also means I can have dim sum in a non-halal joint. Until of course, someone pushes the issue, and demands to see my ID card, which states my religion (and only Muslims have this).

anyway, to bring this back to Singapore, this is part of why Singaporean Chinese racism towards their own Malays (as well as Indians) gets continually refreshed. And Singaporean racism refreshes the Malaysian Malay racism towards their own Chinese. we're each other's funhouse mirror.

*like, this is part of the agreed version of Malaysia's founding story amongst UMNO and PAP ppl. The first Malayan PM was sympathetic to Singapore's argument that they should be in a union with Malaya for historical and cultural reasons, but was extremely hesitant by what the overnight addition of one million Chinese would mean to his political base and legitimacy. Hence when Britain was shopping around on how to resolve the matter of exiting Sarawak and East Borneo (now Sabah), Malaya stepped up with the Malaysia solution. Which led to both Indonesia and Philippines launching their respective cold wars with the new Federation in response. Indonesia, being a socialist state at the time, saw Malaysia as a Western proxy client state, and the Philippines was extremely unhappy its claim on Sabah via the Sulu sultanate in the south was not recognised.
posted by cendawanita at 10:23 AM on March 26, 2018 [10 favorites]


But I don't want to say all that and leave you with the impression that it's all fine and good as long as you're not a Malay-looking (non-)Muslims. Absolutely in ways big or small the conservatism has impacted everyone, but often only in so far as it's touched Malay culture. For example, drinking alcohol might be against established Islam, but alcohol is freely available and sold, because 'non-Muslims drink them', but on the other hand dog owners live in perpetual fear of their dogs simply being killed in daylight if caught outside, or how the local syncretist practice of Chinese Singaporeans and Malaysians where a couple of their local Taoist deities are actually Malay holy men and warriors whom the first British-era Chinese migrants encountered, and remembered the memory of, are now being publicly minimized, to not attract attention of Malays who might not know.

I just wish those of use who can afford to, stay and be in this together, instead of just jetting off somewhere. As it is, there are more Malays than Chinese who've left, contrary to popular belief. But their economic profiles are of a range, because often they got that chance to leave via govt educational scholarships, in comparison with non-Malay Malaysian students who are often self-funded.

ok, back to Singapore.
posted by cendawanita at 10:44 AM on March 26, 2018 [5 favorites]


Agh hit post too soon. I wanted to say, all this is also why there's some kind of ethnic rebalancing that is going on between the two. More Chinese Malaysians are heading to Singapore for work, and more Malay Singaporeans try their luck in Malaysia.
posted by cendawanita at 10:45 AM on March 26, 2018


Great post and article. Cendawanita, thanks for that background and info. Another example of why I love metafilter. I'm always getting exposed to new information from a large group of well informed, knowledgeable, and experienced people.
posted by herda05 at 10:49 AM on March 26, 2018 [5 favorites]




I looked up the term "syariah" because I was unfamiliar with it. Short answer: Wikipedia says it's the word normally spelled "sharia" outside Malaysia. Longer answer: a really quite interesting parallel system of jurisprudence that I think may be similar or even related to the Ottoman "Millet" system.
posted by Joe in Australia at 1:06 AM on March 27, 2018


that's interesting! practically and historically, it's less to do with ottoman system, but it's part of the british colonial approach of divide-and-rule (and who the heck knows maybe they're inspired by the turks). it's a remnant of colonial policy of allowing the natives to have their customary courts. In Sabah and Sarawak, instead of a syariah system for the Muslim natives, it's the native/tribal court/adat system for the indigenous groups, that survived into the federation of Malaysia. So far, there's more conflict between that and syariah law than civil, mostly because by design, they handle the same areas ie family law and some customary crimes.
posted by cendawanita at 2:08 AM on March 27, 2018 [1 favorite]


Consequently there is a syariah system in Singapore too. The only difference is that while we both started from the same colonial laws, in the 1990s, a constitutional amendment was introduced in Malaysia, elevating the syariah court to be one the same level as the civil court (where it used to be stated directly tht civil court will remain the primary law of the land). the conflicts that have since risen is due to both encroachment of the syariah system, and an unwillingness of civil court judges to be aggressive in maintaining their territory (partly due to the inevitable lacunas when that hasty politically motivated amendment was introduced). hence cases of Muslims now unable to leave their religion, when it used to be a simple matter of filling up a deed poll for declaration. (and to tie it back to my earlier points, the only successful petitions for apostasy have been Muslims who were non-Muslims who converted as adults for marriage reasons)
posted by cendawanita at 2:13 AM on March 27, 2018


anecdata:

1) like dazed_one, my chinese malaysian relatives are all moving abroad where possible; this in itself is not new - it's really the second generation of a migration that started during the malayan emergency & the 1969 racial riots [two generations above me, my relatives joined the communist insurgency; now, they just move to singapore]

2) I have increasingly often been approached by people seeking to evangelize, quite aggressively, in Singapore

context:
1) all that said, the spectrum of Christianity in Singapore is broad; the megachurches that attract these kind of speakers have a kind of sketchy rep after the City Harvest scandal; my old pastor was LGBT-friendly and heavily emphasized interreligious events --- but I do feel like this is a kind of Christianity that has increasingly little space here

2) the Malaysian side of the question as cendawanita alluded to is ughhh. race is bound up with politics, both the opposition coalition and the ruling party have strong Islamist elements but are also in uneasy alliance with Chinese parties/ politicians. tl;dr it's a powder keg; see above about Chinese out-migration.
posted by ahundredjarsofsky at 3:16 AM on March 27, 2018 [1 favorite]


Somebody should make an FPP about the City Harvest scandal... it's pretty epic in the sheer scale of corruption that's going on. I know people who are still part of the church, and still believe in Kong Hee.

Nevertheless, the evangelical Christians here don't really seem to be affected by the whole affair that much. To me it feels like the megachurches have been growing in strength, partly due to their aggressive recruitment of younger professionals over the past decades paying off. Many 3rd generation Chinese Singaporeans (like me and the people I went to school with) grew up in mostly secular environments, with families that follow basic Chinese folk religion (which contains a mish-mash of Taoist, Buddhist, Confucian and in some cases Hindu elements). As a result they were ripe for targeting by evangelicals offering organized religion, a sense of community and fellowship, and some answers to the existential questions most teenagers might have. Fast forward several years and these teens are now in their 20s-30s, many with good careers, and obliged to tithe 10% of their income to the church. They're the richest religious organizations in Singapore by far.

Many (Chinese) people here also generally see Christianity and the churches as being nothing but good; if you go to church, you must be a good person, etc. I'd even say it's considered "proper" for middle and upper class Chinese people to attend church; there's a certain social status associated with being Christian.

All that makes Singapore quite a good target for evangelical/charismatic churches seeking new members. American evangelicalism is definitely influential here; besides having speakers like Lou Engle, the churches here also use a lot of material from American churches, and are basically moulded after American evangelical churches. I know Christians here who seamlessly joined the American evangelical movement when they went to the US to study: they support the Republicans, hate Obama, love Trump, etc. Oh and they also hate black people.

So, this is something I worry about quite often; our political situation is already not ideal, and a politicized far-right movement will make things worse. Like micketymoc above mentions, Singapore has many restrictive laws, and while to some extent you can say they work for the greater good, they are still repressive and capable of being used for political purposes. I'm not sure I would want to see further restrictions on our freedom to express ourselves in order to curb such religious extremism. (Interestingly one of the things that's been in the news here lately are proposed laws to combat "fake news"... one gets the impression we're going to end up with even stricter governmental control over media very soon.)
posted by destrius at 5:33 AM on March 27, 2018 [1 favorite]


Also, I am at once grateful for cendawanita's awesome comments about things in Malaysia, and embarrassed that I only learn about my neighbouring country from Metafilter
posted by destrius at 5:37 AM on March 27, 2018 [3 favorites]


Was shocked to see Focus On The Family material being advertised at my daughter’s childcare center the other day. Her childcare center, like countless others in Singapore, is run by the ruling party’s social enterprise wing, and provides great service otherwise: her teachers and classmates are an eclectic mix of races and religions.

I have no idea how Focus on Family infiltrated it, especially after the previous brouhaha where the Ministry of Education cancelled their outreach in secondary schools.
posted by the cydonian at 7:53 AM on March 27, 2018 [1 favorite]


I think Focus on the Family is probably quite entrenched here... when I was still a student one of the (state-controlled) radio stations would play a segment from them every day.
posted by destrius at 7:59 AM on March 27, 2018


the local syncretist practice of Chinese Singaporeans and Malaysians where a couple of their local Taoist deities are actually Malay holy men and warriors whom the first British-era Chinese migrants encountered, and remembered the memory of, are now being publicly minimized, to not attract attention of Malays who might not know.

Ah yes, the Datuk Kong and his related cousin, Ti Ti Ang Kong, better known as Muruga in Tamil. As a monk at the Buddhist temple we always go to at CNY told me once, most (Singaporean) Chinese don’t realise many of the gods in their temples are Malay and Indian as well. :) Cosmic cosplay, as he put it.
posted by the cydonian at 8:09 AM on March 27, 2018 [1 favorite]


I think Focus on the Family is probably quite entrenched here... when I was still a student one of the (state-controlled) radio stations would play a segment from them every day.

Had the impression that it was all stopped after 2014, when the scandal last flared up. Apparently not.
posted by the cydonian at 8:11 AM on March 27, 2018


There's now something called Passport2Purity, which seems to be more restricted to church-based outreach so far but has an even ickier name.

I remember doing that Focus on the Family workshop when I was entering JC from a single-sex secondary school. It was more eyeroll- than outrage- inducing, insofar as the words "sex," "contraception," and "abortion" were never spoken, but everyone knew the FotF game.
posted by ahundredjarsofsky at 7:17 PM on March 27, 2018


when I was still a student one of the (state-controlled) radio stations would play a segment from them every day

omg their outreach here must be related too. I don't recall radio though, but it's the damndest thing, I used to hear James Dobson FOF lectures playing over the speakers at the Giant super/hypermarkets. and i think because they weren't specifically religious, it technically didn't break the law about public missionary activities to Muslims. Never mind that, it was just that a grocery run is the last place I'd expect to listen to them.
posted by cendawanita at 8:08 PM on March 27, 2018


I lived in Singapore until the mid-aughts, and holy shit, it was a completely different place then by the sound of what's being said on this thread. There was no Focus on Family (in such a big way). There used to be some weird encounters on MRTs and such every couple of months, when some random person would sidle up to you and ask, "Have you heard of Jesus Christ?" but that was about it.

Racism was crass and in-your-face and nobody seemed to be ashamed of it or even aware of it. If I gave up my seat on the bus to an old Chinese aunty, she'd likely whip out a tissue to wipe down a seat before she sat down, and probably grimace or curl her lip at me rather than say thanks. My ethnically Indian english teacher used to say to me, "We need to get the Indianness out of your accent, I don't like listening to you read out loud!" At my parents' workplaces, they routinely got left out of office birthday rituals: everyone else would get a birthday card signed by everyone in the office, and angmohs (white people) would even get a cake and presents, but my parents' birthdays would be ignored.

But in this case, I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same...
posted by MiraK at 5:51 AM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]


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