Registering Muslims

Riz Rashid - So, Don Trump wants to register Muslims. And many...

"So, Don Trump wants to register Muslims.
And many Singaporeans who fancy themselves globally savvy agree with the US commentators that this is a bad move or that Trump is racist and all the other reasoning.

But the thing is, we register Muslims in Singapore, yet it's largely seen as a "positive thing" as with this person's comment.

"It's a good point... however in Singapore it's done as a positive information, with Trump it would be about condemning and ostracizing Muslims or others.... like the Yellow Star to be worn by Jews during WWII"

Some Singaporeans aren't even aware that only the Muslims get registered, at birth.

" Anyway it's not the Muslim alone who get registered here in Singapore right all other religions are also stated in birth certificates"

And even hits the nail on the head and misses the point entirely.

"That could be a religions procedure to discourage muslims from leaving the faith and protect stricter muslim laws like only marrying another muslim cannot definitely say it is govt way of keeping track of Muslims"

I oppose the registration of Muslims BABIES, like I oppose the registering of babies to a religious denomination period, like my reply to Calvin Cheng, its because children don't always adhere to their parent's religion, Muslim children are not excluded from this "phenomenon" too, this should be obvious yet somehow it's not.

And apostasy becomes a taboo when people expect you be a Muslim when you're not, thanks to the national perception of your ethnicity being tied with religion, as 99% of malays here are registered muslims since they were babies and many can't be bothered to deregister themselves because of the $20 fee, hence the high figures.

Any form of religious registration by the government needs to be done away with, it's not secular at all, yet this myth of Singapore being a secular country persists, even I thought we were secular for a long time until I realized that what we have are state endorsed religions."

(Note: Trump didn't *actually* say he wanted to register Muslims)