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Category: Agama

  • More Mosques To Be Built In Singapore

    More Mosques To Be Built In Singapore

    We are happy to report that many mosques are being upgraded and new mosques being built to meet the needs of the community.

    Five more mosques are being upgraded this year. They include En-Naeem, Sultan, Sallim Mattar, Al-Khair and Al-Falah Mosques. Al-Ansar Mosque in Bedok is due to be re-opened in April.

    Al-Islah Mosque in Punggol is scheduled for completion before Ramadan this year. Yusof Ishak Mosque in Woodlands and Maarof Mosque in Jurong West should be completed in 2016.

    As Tampines expands, a new mosque will be built in Tampines North in the next few years to serve new residents there and neighbouring Pasir Ris, as well as industrial estates in both areas. We will also upgrade Darul Ghufran Mosque in 2016 to provide 1,000 more prayer spaces and expanded Islamic learning facilities.

     

    Source: MUIS

  • Madrasah Students Need Not Pay National Examination Fees Effective This Year

    Madrasah Students Need Not Pay National Examination Fees Effective This Year

    Madrasah students will not need to pay national examination fees starting this year, Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim said today.

    His announcement comes after Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam announced in his Budget speech last month that the Education Ministry would waive fees for national examinations for Singapore citizens studying in Government-funded schools.

    The six full-time madrasahs, or Islamic religious schools, are largely funded by the Muslim community, and are not covered by this waiver.

    But Dr Yaacob said on Thursday that the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth would assist the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) so that madrasah students will not need to pay these fees too.

    Besides full-time madrasahs, Muis is also working to strengthen part-time Islamic education and make it available to more people in the Muslim community.

    A home-schooling programme, Kids aLive (Learning Islamic Values Everyday) Home Edition, for parents to teach their children about Islam at home was launched in 2014.

    And more than 16,000 students were enrolled in its aLive programme, for children between seven and 16 years old, in mosques last year. This year, Muis plans to start extra sessions on weekdays and weekends, and extend the operating hours for these centres, aiming for a 12 per cent increase in spaces within the next year.

    Meanwhile, to meet rising demand for its Adult Islamic Learning (Adil) classes, Muis has also increased the number of participating mosques to 13, and will develop eight more modules later this year.

    Self-help group Mendaki, too, is stepping up its education outreach efforts to benefit more in the Malay/Muslim community, including having more space in its tuition and homework supervision programmes and giving more guidance to parents of children aged six and below.

    It will be expanding its flagship programme, the Mendaki Tuition Scheme (MTS), which has benefited over 180,000 students since it started in 1982.

    Last year, about 10,000 students enrolled in its 50 centres islandwide. This year, it will set up MTS centres in six more mosques here to make the programme more accessible, among them Al-Ansar Mosque in Bedok, Al-Iman Mosque in Bukit Panjang and Al-Mawaddah Mosque in Sengkang.

    Mendaki will also pilot a mentoring scheme at four of its MTS centres to counsel lower secondary students and help them plan their future, said Dr Yaacob, and aims to have 15 Mendaki Homework Cafes up and running this year – up from two in 2013.

    It also recognises the need to lay a strong foundation for children in their early learning years, and will provide greater support for parents with children aged six and below.

    It will, for instance, develop a toolkit and a curriculum to help parents develop their child’s learning capabilities during the early years.

    Adults will not be left behind. Mendaki’s training arm, Mendaki Sense, will design programmes that tap on schemes under the SkillsFuture initiative, which helps people master skills throughout their career.

    Mendaki is also looking to boost financial literacy among families by working with national financial education programme MoneySense.

    Dr Fatimah Lateef (Marine Parade GRC) also asked for an update on mosque kindergartens. Dr Yaacob said there are 18 such kindergartens, with about 2,600 pupils enrolled. This year, Muis and Mendaki will study ways to further strengthen these kindergartens.

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com

  • Two Malaysians Identified In A Beheading Video By IS

    Two Malaysians Identified In A Beheading Video By IS

    Bukit Aman has identified two Malaysians who were spotted in a beheading video by Isis, The Star Online reported today.

    Special Branch Counter Terrorism Division principal assistant director Senior Asst Comm Datuk Ayub Khan was reported as saying that the two are 20-year-old Mohd Faris Anuar from Kedah and Muhamad Wanndy Muhamad Jedi, 26, who is from Malacca.

    The report said that the duo are believed to be part of a new group of militants comprising Malaysians and Indonesians – Majmu’ah al Arkhabiliy.

    This group, it was reported, replaced the older wing – Katibah Nusantara Lid Daulah Islamiah – in Syria and Iraq.

    In the 30-second video, Faris was the one gesturing with his index finger towards the camera, while Wanndy was believed to be the one recording the video, it said.

    The beheading video was uploaded to a Facebook account on February 20.

    The report said the recording showed a militant identified as an Arab cattying out the beheading of a Syrian accused of being a spy for the Assad regime.

    According to the Star online report, it also showed another militant identified as an Indonesian holding the head of the Syrian and shouting “Allahuakbar”.

    Ayub told the portal that from intelligence gathered, the video was taken by Muhamad Wanndy based on the voice heard in the clip.

    He said the video also showed Muhamad Wanndy, who is the owner of the Facebook account of Abu Hamzah Al Fateh.

    The Star report said Muhamad Wanndy is in Syria with his wife Nor Mahmudah, while Mohd Faris is believed to have gone to Syria in September last year.

    Muhamad Wanndy and wife went to Syria in January this year.

    Authorities in Muslim-majority Malaysia have expressed increasing alarm as scores of the country’s citizens have either gone abroad to join the Isis jihad or been arrested for supporting the group or seeking to travel to Syria.

    In January, Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said 67 Malaysians are known to have gone to Syria and Iraq and that five had been killed fighting for the cause.

    Malaysia was holding 120 people with suspected Isis links or sympathies, including both men and women, said Zahid, who is in charge of domestic security.

    Malaysia has traditionally observed a moderate brand of Islam and kept a lid on extremists.

    But Isis’ ability to lure Malaysian Muslims, along with thousands of others worldwide, to join its bloody jihad has rattled authorities and brought new attention on increasingly conservative Muslim views in Malaysia as its long-ruling government’s tight grip has eased somewhat over the years.

    Malaysia plans to pass into law a  new anti-terrorism law at the next parliament meeting to counter a potential Isis-related security threat as fears grow that recruits may return home to spread militant Islam.

     

    Source: www.themalaysianinsider.com

  • Singapore Ranked Top Muslim-Friendly Destination Among Non-OIC Countries

    Singapore Ranked Top Muslim-Friendly Destination Among Non-OIC Countries

    MasterCard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index 2015 has finally been released, with a new and updated list of the top Muslim-friendly destinations for the year.

    Malaysia and Singapore have been ranked the best Muslim-friendly destinations in the MasterCard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index 2015 – in  the Organisation of Isalmic Cooperation (OIC) and non-OIC destination categories respectively.

    Malaysia takes the top spot on the list for the OIC destination category, followed by, Turkey, UAE,  Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The top 10 destinations have been listed below:

    The Top 10 OIC destinations of GMTI 2015

    RANK OVERALL

    GMTI 2015 RANK

    		 DESTINATION SCORE
    1 1 Malaysia 83.8
    2 2 Turkey 73.8
    3 3 United Arab Emirates 72.1
    4 4 Saudi Arabia 71.3
    5 5 Qatar 68.2
    6 6 Indonesia 67.5
    7 7 Oman 66.7
    8 8 Jordan 66.4
    9 10 Morocco 64.4
    10 11 Brunei 64.3

     

    In the non-OIC destination category Singapore ranks first, with Thailand, UK, South Africa and France making up the top five. The top 10 destinations in the non-OIC destination category have been listed below:

    The Top 10 non-OIC destinations of GMTI 2015

    RANK OVERALL

    GMTI 2015

    RANK

    		 DESTINATION SCORE
    1 9 Singapore 65.1
    2 20 Thailand 59.2
    3 25 United Kingdom 55.0
    4 30 South Africa 51.1
    5 31 France 48.2
    6 32 Belgium 47.5
    7 33 Hong Kong 47.5
    8 34 USA 47.3
    9 35 Spain 46.5
    10 36 Taiwan 46.2

     

    Based on in-depth research and travel data, the rankings cover 100 destinations to create an overall index. All 100 destinations in the GMTI were scored against a backdrop of criteria which included suitability as a family holiday destination, the level of services and facilities it provides, accommodation options, marketing initiatives as well as visitor arrivals. Each criterion was then weighted to make up the overall index score. This is the first time such thorough insights have been provided into the Muslim travel market.

    The index will provide travellers, governments, travel services and investors comprehensive benchmarks on several important criteria, enabling them to track the health and growth of this travel segment.

  • Masagos Zulkifli Urges Singaporeans To Be Eyes And Ears In Fight Against Terrorism

    Masagos Zulkifli Urges Singaporeans To Be Eyes And Ears In Fight Against Terrorism

    With terrorist content proliferating rapidly through social media, Singaporeans can help detect and prevent radicalisation of individuals by reporting terrorist material found online to the authorities. Parents can also keep a close watch for signs of radicalisation among their family members.

    The call for the community to be the eyes and ears for counterterrorism efforts was made by security experts and Senior Minister of State (Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs) Masagos Zulkifli at a security conference on Tuesday (Mar 3), amid concerns of self-radicalised individuals finding inspiration from the Islamic State extremist group’s materials that have gone viral on the Internet.

    Speaking on the sidelines of the Global Security Asia 2015 conference, Mr Masagos said members of the community, such as parents, can help watch for signs of radicalisation among their family and friends.

    “At the end of the day, we have to take responsibility to watch over our children, our community, so they do not take up arms … Indeed, we should prevent them and look out for all these tell-tale signs as early as possible,” he added.

    Describing social media as the Islamic State’s “most powerful weapon” for spreading ideas and recruiting followers, conference chairman Dr Rohan Gunaratna said it is paramount for governments and their community partners to counter the threat in cyberspace in addition to existing efforts.

    “Governments and their community partners should, on a minute-by-minute basis, counter the online and offline threats. Online, the Islamic State has invested significant resources to politicise, radicalise and militarise vulnerable segments of our community,” said the professor of security studies from the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

    Dr Gunaratna said websites should be set up to counter the group’s extremist ideology and there should be “active engagements” to rebut its ideology online.

    WHAT YOU CAN DO: HELP NOTIFY AUTHORITIES

    Singapore-based Certified Counter Terrorism Practitioner programme director Yaniv Peretz said service providers such as Google cannot keep up with the speed and volume at which Islamic State materials and related content are being shared online.

    “The problem is the videos are being posted too fast. By the time they are taken off, there are already thousands of copies of these videos all around the Internet,” he said.

    To address this problem, Mr Peretz cited the example of how citizens in Israel have kept a lookout for terrorist threats, such as bombs, in public areas. On one occasion, a bag containing a bomb was spotted by a civilian who alerted the police, he said.

    Similarly, by raising public awareness of the terrorist threat on the Internet, the public can help notify the authorities of terrorist content proliferating on social media, he added.

    The three-day conference, which will end on Wednesday, will see experts discussing issues related to the threats posed to Asia by the Islamic State. Held at Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre, the event also features an exhibition showcasing more than 170 international security contractors with cutting-edge equipment.

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com