International Religious Conference in Singapore focuses on guiding mankind in contemporary times

Abdul Razak Hassan Maricar, Chief Executive, Muis, opened the Singapore International Religious Conference (ICS2018), held in conjunction with the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore’s 50th anniversary, with a call to explore novel ways of instilling positive values and developing strong institutions to address the emerging challenges for humanity.

"Muis strongly believe that religious traditions are founded on powerful values that can guide communities. For the Singapore Muslim community, a key value is the value of 'rahmah' (رَحمة), which means 'compassion'. It is also the underlying philosophy of Muis’ vision and mission for the last 50 years. Inspired by the Divine’s attribute to care for all of creation unconditionally, we aspire to nurture a community that brings goodness to everyone," he said in his welcome remarks.

He added that faith communities in Singapore demonstrate strong mutual respect and understanding as well as the spirit of helping and working together.

"Through this conference, we seek to highlight such efforts that promote goodness in society," he said.

In his closing remarks, Dr Mohamed Fatris Bakaram, the Mufti of Singapore, concluded that the conference seeks to offer a framework to realise traditional ethics, teachings and values, and stressed that success requires active analysis of how to maintain the core values of the religion within the modern context.

"...Our optimism can only materialise if religions are willing to continue to renew ourselves by engaging critically with our own traitions, as opposed to being passive recipients of tradition, and by reconnecting ourselves with the core values of our religion in contextualised ways," he said.

He added that the challenge for faith communities is to identify the type and nature of scriptural references and religious texts; which are immutable as they form the core principles and beliefs of the religion, and which are context-specific and serve as exceptions to the norm. This is especially important when some groups may be preaching exclusivist and isolationist ideas and practices to the extent of denying the right to exist.

Looking towards the future is also important. "As we think ahead, we also need to reflect on whether more needs to be done. This question though must be considered together with a good and deep understanding of what the future may look like – religiously, socio-politically as well as economically and technologically," he said.

This affects how future religious scholars are trained, for example, he pointed out. Dr Mohamed shared that the Singapore Fatwa Committee has used creativity and criticality in engaging religious texts so that Singapore Muslims may remain relevant and actively engaged in the modern world. One such conclusion is to recognise nomination as part of wealth transfers as being a form of hibah (الهبة), a gift given voluntarily, without the expectation of anything in return.

"The Fatwa Committee acknowledged that we could not force the modern forms of transactions onto traditional or historical ones which existed in a certain historical economic context. This is in no way abandoning our traditions, in fact, we drew from our traditions the fundamentals upon which our scholars have reviewed, adapted and even acknowledged instruments of their time to be one which is shari'ah-compliant. By exercising our creativity and criticality, we are in fact upholding the very scholarly tradition by ensuring it thrives in solving real issues of the time," he said.

ICS2018, with the theme The Future of Faith: Religious Values in a Plural World, is jointly organised by Muis and the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies led by His Eminence Shaykh Abdallah bin Bayyah.

Hashtag: #BeingMuslimandSingaporean

Video discusses role of a Muslim in a modern democracy

Singapore's Office of the Mufti has added to its series of short YouTube videos focused on what it means to be a Muslim in the modern world.

The series, Muslims in the Contemporary World, features insights from local, regional and international scholars on the understanding and practice of Islam.

The first video featured American Islamic scholar and President, Zaytuna College Sheikh Hamza Yusuf discussing if Muslims should honour other cultures.

Sheikh Hamza also discusses the role of a Muslim in a modern democracy in another video, where he recommends that Muslims who have access to the political process should participate in it.

Explore:

View the Youtube channel of the Office of the Mufti

Contemporary art from Turkey on show at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia

Source: Islamic Arts Museum
Malaysia website. Erol
Akyavaş, Locus of
Extremity, 1982.

The Tradition, Culture and Modernity: Contemporary Art from Turkey exhibition runs till 31 January at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia. 

The exhibition showcases 26 artworks from 17 artists from the collection of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey. Curated by Professor Mümtaz Sağlam, an academician and art critic from Turkey, this exhibition highlights the concepts that assumed increasing importance during the process of westernisation.

The Turkish painting movement began in the 1800s with Osman Hamdi Bey of the Academy of Fine Arts, with the sultans sending artists to Europe to learn, and inviting European artists to Turkey to teach. Towards the end of the Ottoman Empire (1299 to 1923), Turkish painters were influenced by French Impressionism but avoided reproducing the human form in alignment with the teachings of Islam, though some began hinting at it after the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923. By the 1980s the Turkish art scene had embraced various modern art movements.

Erol Akyavaş (1932-1999) was the first Turkish artist to have his work included in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in 1961, when he was 29 years old. His style evolved greatly during in his 50-year career. Always combining east with west, he has included abstracts of calligraphy in his early work and is known for geometric representations of architecture and labyrinths as motifs. 

Eat with Love by Samira el Khafir features Lebanese-inspired recipes, with a twist

Melbourne-based Samira el Khafir and her seven siblings were never allowed into their mother's kitchen when they were growing up. As the youngest, she managed to break this rule when she was in her teens, falling in love with cooking as a result. 

"My mother was unwell and needed help in the kitchen and that’s where my passion for food began," said the mother of two, who has worked as a hair stylist and beauty therapist.

"Cooking has been a passion from when I was in my teens. It wasn’t until I suffered with post-natal depression that I realised life is just simply too short to put my dreams on hold, so I entered Masterchef 2013 season 5, became a finalist and finished on top three. I never thought I would make it so far into the show but I did it."

When planning the book, Samira el Khafir
said she hoped the book would give
readers an insight to how she
found the love for food and how
her food has changed since being
on Masterchef.

Besides being in the Masterchef top three, el Khafir has gone on to share her love for cooking. She has published a book, Eat with Love, which includes recipes for most of the winning dishes she cooked at the Masterchef competition. 

In the introduction of the book el Khafir says that she hopes to spread her love of Middle Eastern food to the world of food lovers. "In this cookbook I have shared some traditional dishes and also have many of my MasterChef creations that I really hope you all enjoy. Remember, cook with love, so you can eat with love," she says.

El Khafir explains that MasterChef, season 5 was an eye opener for her. "It opened my eyes to culinary techniques and an understanding as to why I cook the way I do. I took the risk and ventured out and have produced my very own modern Middle Eastern cuisine. I have infused different flavours and techniques to what I would usually cook and turned my dishes into MasterChef quality dishes," she said.

While cooks can try out the MasterChef-influenced recipes in Eat with Love, el Khafir's food can also be tasted at her own cafe. Since Masterchef she has opened the Modern Middle Eastern Cafe at the Islamic Museum of Australia, which she runs personally. 

While el Khafir's food is clearly influenced by Lebanese cuisine which she learned from her mother, she later explored African flavours after she married an Egyptian, and then branched out further. "My family has grown to be very multicultural with family from Europe, Africa, Australia and the Middle East and I am so pleased to be a part of the mixed range of nationalities in my family because it has introduced me to all different types of cuisines," she said.

"My dream is to open kitchen workshops for disadvantaged children in Australia where they can come and cook, have a good time and go home with the meals they’ve prepared." 

Some recipes from el Khafir can be viewed here, including her first 'dish of the day' at Masterchef, fatet jaj. 

The recipe for modern baklava is found
in Samira el Khafir's book.

"Traditionally this dish is layered bread, then chicken, then yogurt, then nuts, but I turned it into a modernised version on Masterchef and it got me 'dish of the day'! A lot of Lebanese people make this dish; mine is a little different, I like to play around with my recipe so I hope you all like it," she said.

Eat with Love has 140 pages, and features about 80 recipes, for entrees, mains, desserts, spices and dips. The book is available on Amazon, where the hardcover edition costs US$17.99**, but also available at all major bookstores and online. It is also sold at the Islamic Museum of Australia.

*Images from Samira el Khafir.

**Pricing may vary depending on the retail outlet.