The Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO) in partnership with OnePeople.sg organised a seminar on “Distortions and Facts: Women in Islam” on 12 November 2008 at OnePeople.sg.

Many of the prevalent distortions about Islam revolve around the issue of the status of the female in Islam. In this insightful and thought-provoking seminar, Dr Bibijan Mohd Ayyub, BBM provided her explanation from the Quran and the Hadith.

She touched on the issues of limited polygyny in Islam, divorce procedures, rights to inheritance, leadership role of women by having recourse to the facts as plainly laid out in the Quran and the Hadith, particularly the Quran which is the very immutable Constitution of Islam  accepted by all schools of Islamic thought and law.

Many from the audience also shared their views and thoughts about the subject during the Q&A session.

Click here to read the translation of the 25 November article in Berita Harian about the seminar.

Join our next seminar! Please continue to check our website for updates.

New slogan! New Logo! Moving Forward! Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS), and Mrs Yu-Foo Yee, Minister of State Community Development, Youth and Sports joined hands with members of the National Steering Committee (NSC) on Racial and Religious Harmony to launch the IRCC logo and slogan, at the National Inter-Racial and Religious Confidence Circle (IRCC) Workshop 2008 on 5 April 2008 organised by MCYS. 200 participants from the IRCCs attended the event.

With the launch of the new IRCC logo and slogan, it was timely to review the IRCCs' progress since its formation in 2002. OnePeople.sg (OPSG) worked closely with MCYS to facilitate a workshop on the IRCCs' challenges, strengths and future plans in strengthening racial and religious harmony at the community level.

24 of OPSGs trained volunteer facilitators, most of them from our Explorations in Ethnicity (EiE) programme, carried out the discussions and brought great ideas to the table. The members expressed that having dialogues and visits to religious institutions was important in promoting inter-faith understanding at the ground level. They were pleased with the dialogue sessions, heritage visits and workshops organised by OPSG and wanted more of such programmes as part of their learning journey. Some felt that IRCCs should pool resources at a GRC level for some of the emergency preparedness exercises. Others felt an IRCC website will enable them to access information and programmes. One thing was for certain, all unanimously felt that a new slogan and logo was an excellent move and they were literally geared for it. Each member walked home in high spirits with their very own IRCC T-shirt.

As for our facilitators, it was a great hands-on experience because they were able to practice what they had learnt form our EiE Facilitators programme. They had the opportunity to share their thoughts and exchange views on community bonding.

Click here to download the media release on the Launch of the IRCC logo and slogan at the National Inter-Racial and Religious Confidence Circle (IRCC) Workshop 2008.

On 6 April 2008 , the Central Singapore CDC and OnePeople.sg, together with the FreeKicks partners, namely Mendaki, Sinda, Associations of Muslim Professionals (AMP) and Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC) held their Partnership Accord Ceremony at the Jalan Besar Stadium to launch the programme.

The weekly FreeKicks soccer programme aims to inculcate racial harmony values by building friendships through soccer and nurturing ideals of racial harmony by organising programmes for the participants  to embrace, understand and appreciate our multi-ethnic and multi-cultural environment . FreeKicks offers an excellent opportunity for children from different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds to interact with one another through meaningful sporting activities.

For more information about Free Kicks please contact Venkadasan at DID: 6253 3285 or E-mail: Venkadasan@onepeople.sg .

In the spirit of racial and religious harmony, the Inter-Religious Organisation, Singapore (IRO) organises inter-faith seminars in partnership with OnePeople.sg to promote inter-faith understanding among youth, ethnic, religious and community groups. Two Seminars are held for each religion - Hinduism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Jainism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism and Bahai Faith. The seminar held on 23 April 2008 focused on the theme of ‘Christians and Peace'.

Father Bruno shared his experiences in Sri Lanka and India and spoke about how Christians can work towards peace and harmony in Singapore 's multi-racial and multi-faith society. This gave the audiences a fresh perspective on the meaningful opportunities for Christians to bond and to help others from different faiths even while they pursue their own.

Ms See Guat Kwee also shared her journey of peacemaking and her experiences in inter-faith dialogue in other countries . The audiences were certainly moved by the account of her journey of conviction and passion to promote peace and harmony among people of different faiths.

These seminars cover different aspects of each religion, with a common objective to share the good work that each religion does to support peace and goodwill within our multi-racial and multi-religious communities.

Be part of the movement! Join our next seminar! Please continue to check our website for updates.

The Trust Building Workshop for IRCC members and community leaders is a scenario-based session where participants are involved in discussing strategies to build trust in the event of a religious or ethnic conflict. This is important in ensuring that that community solidarity is not affected due to rising tensions among religious and ethnic communities.

The workshop also aims to facilitate sharing of the approaches to promote inter-ethnic and inter-faith understanding at the community level. As part of the group discussions, participants will be presented with likely scenarios and tasked to brainstorm on actions they would take to restore the levels of trust and understanding in the community. They will also share their views and gain an understanding of the present strengths and gaps in maintaining, building and enhancing TRUST within and among faith and ethnic communities in Singapore.

The Mediation Course for Community Leaders is spread over 2 half-day sessions which enables participants to understand the key concepts of mediation and apply the principles in dealing with inter-ethnic conflicts.

Conducted by an experienced trainer Mr Viswa Sadasivan, CEO Strategic Moves, the Mediation Course will engage participants in a series of interactive discussions, hands-on practices, role plays and sharing of views and experiences.

Participants are able to explore the barriers to community engagement and how these affects one's ability to mediate inter-ethnic conflicts. Contents of this course also cover topics such as identifying and addressing fault lines, recognising the need for mediating diverse interests, and understanding the roles of a mediator. The role-play sessions in the course also allow participants to experience the various stages of mediation and at the same time, better understand differing perceptions and positions.

Reflections: Unfolding Faith and Ethnicity brings you on visits to heritage centres and iconic places of workshop to explore and appreciate the unique cultures and practices of a specific faith or ethnicity.

Participants will engage in a dialogue with religious leaders to understand the significance as well as the sensitivities associated with religious or cultural practices.

OnePeople.sg and the Sikh Welfare Council joined hands for the very first time to organise the Singapore Racial and Religious Harmony Marathon Relay to spread the message of racial and religious harmony. More than 1,000 multi-Racial and multi-religious participants decked in white and red participated in the various segments of the overnight islandwide run from 27- 28 October 2007.