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  • 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

  • Restaurant Secretary Fined $5,000 For Forging New Halal Certificate

    Restaurant Secretary Fined $5,000 For Forging New Halal Certificate

    A restaurant secretary who had failed to renew the company’s halal certificate forged a new one and showed it to potential customers.

    Pung Chee Lai then lied to her boss by telling him the halal application was still being processed and backed this up by showing him a faked email purporting to be from the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis).

    The 57-year-old was fined $5,000 on Tuesday after she admitted using the forged email.

    At the time she had been working for Pioneer Spring Restaurant and Tuas Point Seafood and Catering, which provided halal food for company functions.

    Tuas Point’s halal certificate expired on Nov 20, 2011, but when Rotary Engineering and Singtel made inquiries for halal food in the three months after that, she provided fakes that expired on Nov 30, 2012.

    A police report was lodged in March 2012.

    Deputy Public Prosecutor Ang Siok Chen said that Pung’s boss was alerted to the forged certificate by his staff, and when he confronted Pung about it she told him that the application renewal was still being processed.

    To back up her claims, she showed him an email from Muis – which had also been forged.

    Ms Ang highlighted the public interest in deterring conduct which undermines the Halal certification regime. She said Pung’s actions were dishonest and premeditated.

    Agreeing, District Judge Wong Choon Ning said the whole system would be affected if people could bypass it or create false certification, adding: “In this case, I do not find any basis of a deliberate commission of the act to provoke racial disharmony.”

    Pung’s lawyer Devadas Naidu said his client made the false statement to Mr Lee in order not to be pressed further and cause further stress to her boss.

    Pung, who has two other charges considered, could have been jailed for up to four years and/or fined for using a forged document.

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com

  • Did Yaacob Ibrahim Delegation Obtain Increased Quota Of Haj Participants From Singapore?

    Did Yaacob Ibrahim Delegation Obtain Increased Quota Of Haj Participants From Singapore?

    In a Facebook post on Friday evening, Minister for Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim said that he had met with Saudi Arabia’s Hajj Minister, Dr Bandar Bin Mohamed Al-Hajjar, on Thursday to discuss arrangements for the upcoming pilgrimage in September.

    Readers who had seen Yaacob’s post, however, were left confused on whether there would any increase in the Hajj quota this year. Although the minister mentioned that both he and Dr Bandar “agreed that the safety, welfare and security of the Hajj pilgrims must be given utmost priority”, he did not mention whether Dr Bandar had ever agreed to any increase in the Hajj quota.

    Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

  • 5 Things About Wakaf Properties In Singapore

    5 Things About Wakaf Properties In Singapore

    New strata villas at Jalan Haji Alias are the latest Islamic-endowed properties to be launched by Warees Investments, the real estate development arm of the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis).

    The 30,450 sq ft land parcel off Sixth Avenue was bequeathed in 1905, and also houses the 110-year-old mosque, Masjid Al-Huda.

    Known as wakaf properties, developments such as this are built on land bequeathed or willed by a Muslim towards religious or charitable uses.

    They now include serviced apartments, cluster housing, commercial buildings, and a heritage centre.

    Here are five things you may not have known about wakaf in Singapore.

    1. Long history in Singapore

    This practice of religious endowment originated in the Middle East, where it is known as waqf. It was introduced to Singapore by Arab traders almost 200 years ago.

    The first wakaf documented in Singapore was created in 1820. The Omar Mosque off Havelock Road was endowed by Yemen-born businessman Syed Omar Ali Aljunied. The mosque is also the oldest one in Singapore.

    Many wakaf were given by Arab and Indian Muslim merchants, and a number of important wakaf were established in the 19th century. The number of new wakaf have dwindled in recent years.

    2. Wakaf properties

    There are more than 100 wakaf properties, according to Muis. Most are managed by Muis, while a number are managed by trustees. The properties were valued at $584 million as of December 2013.

    They include:

    Residential properties at Duku Road, Telok Indah

    Serviced apartments at Somerset Bencoolen

    Commercial properties at Dunlop Street, Kandahar Street, Pagoda Street, South Bridge Road, Telok Ayer Street, Temple Street, Changi Road, North Bridge Road, Upper Dickson Road and Joo Chiat Road.

    Wakaf mosques such as Masjid Haji Md Salleh, Masjid Khalid, Masjid Khadijah, Masjid Kassim and Masjid Bencoolen.

    The Chancery Residence, cluster housing at Chancery Lane

    Madrasah Al-Maarif Al-Islamiah at Lorong 39 Geylang

    A six-storey commercial building at 11 Beach Road which Muis bought in 2001

    3. Where does the money go?

    Last year, Muis gave $2.17 million to 60 beneficiaries. The largest beneficiaries are mosques, says Muis. Sixty-two per cent of wakaf funds are distributed to them, and 9 per cent to madrasahs.

    Other beneficiaries are the poor and needy, as well as charitable organisations. Some funds are disbursed to foreign countries according to the donors’ wills.

    4. Revitalisation of wakaf land

    Warees Investments – the real-estate development arm of Muis – was set up in 2001 to find ways to enhance the value of wakaf land.

    In recent years, it has embarked on a wakaf revitalisation scheme to rejuvenate properties in its care.

    Its first project under the scheme is the Red House Bakery in Katong, which philanthropist Sheriffa Zain Alsharoff Mohamed Alsagoff put in trust in 1957.

    The integrated heritage development project, called The Red House, will consist of 42 residential units and six shophouses. It will be completed in 2016.

    The Alias Villas are the second project to be unveiled. There will be another project in the city centre, Warees told The Straits Times in an interview in 2013.

    5. Overseas expansion

    Warees signed a memorandum of understanding with property management firm CPG Facilities Management in 2005 to explore joint-venture opportunities abroad. It is offering its property management and development services to Muslim countries in the region and the Middle East.

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com

  • MUIS Builds Villas On Wakaf Land To Fund Upgrading of Al-Huda Mosque

    MUIS Builds Villas On Wakaf Land To Fund Upgrading of Al-Huda Mosque

    The 110-year-old Al-Huda Mosque in Jalan Haji Alias, off Sixth Avenue, will be getting new neighbours – six luxury villas that come with a swimming pool.

    And money from the sale of these villas will be used to fund the current upgrading of the mosque.

    Known as Alias Villas, the semi-detached strata landed units were launched yesterday by Warees Investments, the real estate development arm of the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis).

    The three-storey villas have a 99-year lease and are expected to be ready by 2017. They range from 3,000 to 3,670 sq ft and will go for at least $1,500 per sq ft, or around $5 million each.

    The launch is part of an ongoing revitalisation scheme by Warees Investments to enhance the asset value of wakaf properties, which are built on land bequeathed or willed by Muslims towards religious or charitable uses. The 30,450 sq ft wakaf land parcel that will house the villas was donated in 1905 by Indian landowner Navena Choona Narainan Chitty to trustees for building the Al-Huda mosque.

    Upgrading works to the mosque began last June and are due for completion next month. The $1.1 million upgrading cost is expected to be reimbursed with money from the sale of the adjacent villas.

    “Alias Villas is a reflection of the success of the Singaporean Muslim community,” said Mr Haider M. Sithawalla, chairman of Warees Investments’ board of directors.

    “What used to be a humble plot of land in the middle of the old Kampung Tempeh is now going to be a prestigious residential development in the heart of District 10,” he added, referring to how the area used to be a kampung from the 1920s to 1980s.

    At the launch at Marina Mandarin hotel yesterday, Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim said: “The whole idea is really to unlock the value of our wakaf. So this is a good example… a mosque which has been bequeathed with a little piece of land… We’ve been able to maximise it to generate further income for the mosque and for the beneficiaries of the wakaf.”

    He said he believed the duty of Muis and Warees is to maximise the potential of the wakaf land because the benefit goes back to the community.

    “So I think this is something which we are obligated to do and we will do our best with the help of the community.”

    One-stop website for Malay heritage

    Spanning news features, videos and even a digitised traditional game, a new website aims to be a one-stop gateway for resources on the Malay community’s heritage.

    The WarisanSG portal, warisansg.com, was launched yesterday by the Malay Heritage Foundation (MHF). Available in Malay and English, it includes news articles, event listings, picture and video galleries, and even a cyber version of congkak, a traditional Malay game.

    More than 20 Republic Polytechnic and National University of Singapore students who interned with the foundation contributed to the site’s content.

    A mobile game app and book were also launched yesterday. The app, Warisan Enigma, is a puzzle game where players can find out more about the history of Malay artefacts dating as far back as the 14th century.

    The book, Faith, Authority And The Malays: The Ulama In Contemporary Singapore, is the third of five books in the Singapore Malays: Our Heritage & Legacy series.

    Written by Mr Norshahril Saat, a doctorate candidate at Australian National University, it looks at the history of the Islamic religious elite and how Malay Muslims here respond to the challenges of modernisation while preserving their Islamic heritage.

    Ms Sim Ann, Minister of State for Communications and Information, and Education, attended the launch at the Malay Heritage Centre in Sultan Gate. She said these initiatives will facilitate the documentation, promotion and preservation of Malay heritage.

    “As we celebrate our nation’s 50th birthday this year, I am heartened by the efforts of individuals and organisations, such as the MHF, in the documentation and preservation of our local culture and heritage. This is a task that has no end, and is much better done by many hands and minds.”

     

    Source: http://news.asiaone.com