Lee Kuan Yew by Alex Josey

Author:Alex Josey
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9789814435499
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish

XII

“We are fortunate in Singapore,” Lee Kuan Yew told the Tamil Muslim Union at their Holy Qu’aran Conference on 17 July “in that throughout our recent history of over a hundred and forty years, religion has always been a cohesive, not a divisive, force in our community. Unlike many other parts of Southeast Asia collisions on religious lines have been singularly absent. Whether Buddhists, Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodist, Hindus or Muslims, we have avoided the excesses which in other parts of the world have made not only governments unhappy, but have also made the people miserable.

“Even a pacifist, humane, religious philosophy which Buddhism represents and which advocates that not even an insect should be destroyed, such is the love for living things, if given the wrong interpretation and in wrong situations, can lead to a lot of unhappiness—as has happened when a Ceylonese Prime Minister was assassinated; as is happening in a very unhappy part of Southeast Asia where Buddhist monks, far from confining the interpretation of their Holy Book to the spiritual values of men, have taken to the streets to contest the temporal power of the state. . .

“I am not a Muslim. But that does not mean that I do not understand how passionately and fervently quite a number of our citizens feel about the Muslim faith. Nor am I a Catholic but, in the same way, I hope I understand how important a very small but a very vigorous section of our community feels about Catholicism. I was late this morning for your symposium because I had to attend the rehearsal of some parades which will take place on the anniversary of our independence. And I was cheered to see how the different religious groups have made a positive contribution to our social structure—whether it be the Muslims, or the Catholics who run quite a number of our secondary schools, or the Presbysterians who run some other schools, and so on. And I hope that the leaders of the Muslim community in Singapore will—as you have suggested, Mr President—interpret Islam in a way which will be to the benefit of its followers, and to the general good of the community. . .”

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