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Functionalizing Islam: The schooling experiences of Malay Muslims in Singapore
Citation
Tan, C. (2012). Functionalizing Islam: The schooling experiences of Malay Muslims in Singapore. HIKMA: Journal of Islamic Theology and Religious Education, 3(5), 174-186. http://www.hikma-online.com/cms/sites/default/files/HIKMA%205%20Art%202.pdf
Author
Tan, Charlene
Abstract
This article explores key events in the schooling experiences of the Malay Muslims in Singapore by using Gregory Starrett’s concept of the ‘functionalisation of religion’. It argues that many Malay Muslims turned to the madrasah as a symbol and function of cultural and religious resistance towards the British colonial government’s secular and anglicised state schools. After Singapore’s independence, when a majority of Malay Muslims preferred secular state schools to the madāris (pl. of madrasah), the madrasah leaders responded by functionalising the madāris for the institutions’ own survival and long-term viability. In recent years, some Malay Muslim parents and their supporters also attempt to functionalise the headscarf as a symbol of their religious identity and rejection of the secular state educational policy.
Date Issued
October 2012
Journal
HIKMA: Journal of Islamic Theology and Religious Education