In his National Day Rally speech, the Prime Minister held up the work of a group of mosque leaders as an example of the Muslim community engaging the other races. Three members of that nine-man committee tell Insight about their efforts to present the positive side of a community whose image has been bit by the Sept 11 attacks
By Jeremy Au Yong
ON A recent night, three Chinese nationals walking past the Jamae Chulia Mosque in Chinatown try to get a drink from a pink clam-shaped water fountain.
But the water pressure is too low.
On hearing about it, mosque chairman Sheikh Fakruden Ali phones a plumber right away, then heads outside to see if he can do anything about it himself.
Why the fuss over a drink fountain?
To Sheikh Fakruden, it is not just a place to get a drink. In its own little way, the $3,000 fountain represents the reputation of the Muslim community.
It was installed on the sidewalk just outside the entrance of the mosque in South Bridge Road as a service from Muslims to anyone who passes.
'We put the fountain outside and not inside our mosque. So even people who don't want to come into the mosque can use it. If you are walking past and you are thirsty, you can just have a cold drink. It's for everyone,' says Sheikh Fakruden, who also holds a full-time job as an accountant.
The Fountains of Blessing, the code name given to the Chinatown spout and two others, are part of a larger effort to present a different side of the Muslim community - a side Muslim leaders say is, so far, relatively unseen and underplayed.
Similarly under the radar is a committee of mosque leaders - named the Blessings To All committee - who have made it their mission to change perceptions of their community.
Says Mr Paiman Supangat, chairman of the Al-Iman Mosque and head of the nine-man committee: 'After the Sept 11 attacks, the image of Islam around the world is not good. The good aspects of the religion, like being a blessing to all, are not seen by many.'
To do this, the group has been raising funds for international disaster relief work and running small welfare projects at home.
And though the committee has been around since 2005, it has kept a very low profile, so much so that few outside the Muslim community know about it.
Last month, on July 13, committee members finally introduced themselves to the rest of the country when they held a Blessings To All Day which was attended by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
They pulled together a host of different welfare projects and, in a way, captured three years of work in one day.
The committee launched a year-long blood donation drive, served food to 1,000 needy people of various races and donated more than $120,000 collected at the 69 mosques across Singapore to victims of the Myanmar cyclone and Sichuan earthquake.
Last Sunday, PM Lee singled out the event for praise during his Malay address at the National Day Rally, as he called on the Malay-Muslim community to stay engaged with other races.
How it began
THREE members of the Blessings To All committee - chairman Paiman, vice- chairman Azman Kassim and member Sheikh Fakruden - have come together at 8pm to talk to Insight about their work.
A night meeting is par for the course for the trio and the six other members of the committee. Each one oversees the running of a mosque and some, like Mr Azman, who is a technical instructor at Manjusri Secondary School, hold down a job in the day.
But listening to them talk - in a mixture of English and Malay - it is clear they view the extra work as a blessing.
'We have to be creative to think of things we could do that would not overlap with what the mosques are already doing,' says Mr Paiman.
For instance, the mosques offer financial help to needy Muslims in their area.
The committee was forced to hatch more off-the-beaten-path plans such as the fountains, beach cleaning and the setting up of a volunteer group that helps the needy with small home repairs.
They traced the birth of their efforts to the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami that slammed many parts of Asia.
Mosques across Singapore took a collection over two Fridays for victims of the tragedy - and the amount collected made them sit up and take notice.
'Within two days, we collected more than $500,000. To us, that was a big sum. Because if you go by financial power, I don't think we can collect that amount. Until now, that is still a record,' said Mr Azman.
This surge of compassion had the mosque leaders thinking about the positive aspects of the Muslim community. From there, the Blessings To All committee took shape.
Says Mr Azman: 'It was quite clear that the community really responds to disasters. The committee is authorised to collect funds at the mosques twice a year and we noticed that if the collection does not coincide with a disaster, the amount collected can be quite pathetic.'
A non-disaster collection by the committee at the 69 mosques on any one Friday may yield more than $10,000, but doing the same for victims of the Sichuan earthquake and Myanmar cyclone brought in more than $80,000.
What the committee does
IN UNDER three years, since the 2004 tsunami, the committee has collected about $1.3 million for various disaster relief efforts.
Money is collected at mosques, with donation cans being passed around. The committee can do collections twice a year to fund their projects or for special causes like disasters.
But while fund-raising for international relief efforts can be straightforward, the mosque leaders have to think out of the box when trying to raise money for local causes.
Part of the difficulty in coming up with new welfare projects is that they do not want to overlap with existing work of the mosques. For instance, mosques offer financial help to needy Muslims in their own areas.
The desire not to overlap has spawned a string of projects markedly different from the kind of welfare work typically associated with mosques.
At the Al-Iman Mosque in Bukit Panjang, volunteers have banded together to form a 'makeover brigade'.
While not quite up to renovating a house, they visit the needy and carry out basic home repairs. Local grassroots leaders help to identify the families in need.
'At the mosque, we have people who can do plumbing, others who are electricians, and those who can do painting. So if there any families facing difficulties, we will do repairs for them,' says Mr Azman.
'And if we find they don't have beds, we will make an appeal on their behalf.'
Not surprisingly, the busiest periods are close to festivals such as Chinese New Year, Deepavali and Hari Raya.
The Al-Iman Mosque started a soup kitchen for needy people of all races. Calling it the Blessed Kitchen, they give free meals once a month.
In Woodlands, the An-Nur Mosque held reunion dinners for poor residents over the Chinese New Year period for two years, and plans to make it an annual affair. Around 200 people living in the one-room flats in the area were invited to the halal Chinese meal.
In Sembawang, volunteers from the As-Syafaah Mosque clear the litter at the Sembawang Park beach once a month. They have been doing this for almost three years.
Its worshippers also take part in a community patrol with the Sembawang Neighbourhood Police Post.
Other smaller projects include visits to hospitals and welfare homes, painting park shelters and even planting trees.
The initiatives come in various shapes and sizes but with one common objective: the projects must benefit people of different races and are done in partnership with a non-religious organisation.
The Sembawang beach-cleaning project, for instance, is spearheaded by the mosque with local grassroots groups.
There are more plans in the pipeline. During the coming holy month of Ramadan, which starts on Sept 1, the committee plans to invite non-Muslims, for the first time, to the annual breaking-fast ceremony.
Beyond that, planning has started on next year's Blessings To All Day.
Work that never ends
ULTIMATELY, the committee acknowledges that though these small gestures do help, a lot more needs to be done.
In fact, all three members scoff at the notion that the committee could one day declare its mission accomplished and close shop.
Look at the Yellow Ribbon project, says Mr Paiman, referring to the campaign that promotes social acceptance of ex-offenders.
'As long as people are people, we will always have work to do to build social capital. I mean, you can never envisage that because of the success of Yellow Ribbon, the campaign will close. The same goes for us.'
ALL ARE WELCOME
'We put the fountain outside...So even people who don't want to come into the mosque can use it. If you are walking past and you are thirsty, you can just take a cold drink. It's for everyone.'
Sheikh Fakruden
RAISING VISIBILITY
'After the Sept 11 attacks, the image of Islam around the world is not good. The good aspects of the religion, like being a blessing to all, are not seen by many.'
Mr Paiman Supangat, Blessings To All committee chairman
WE WILL GO ON
'As long as people are people, we will always have work to do to build social capital. You can never envisage...that the (Yellow Ribbon) campaign will close. The same goes for us.'
