The partial secularisms of Singapore's Muslim minorities: Arbitraging model citizenship and (in)complete selves at the margins
Publication Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
10-2022
Abstract
This article argues that the secular should be understood as a partial construct that is selectively deployed by individuals to structure everyday encounters with difference. The partiality of the secular is pronounced in Muslim minority contexts, in which Muslims must negotiate varying degrees of ontological incompatibility between their religious and nonreligious selves. How religious and secular understandings of “model” citizenship are negotiated throughout the spaces and aspirations of everyday life can provide insight into the partiality of the secular, and how such partiality can create difference where there might otherwise be unity. We illustrate these ideas through an empirical exploration of Singapore’s Muslim minorities. In Singapore, the Muslim population is primarily Malay, but includes non-Malay cohorts as well. Bangladeshi migrant workers form an important minority, as their visa status precludes them from becoming Singapore citizens, and thus removes them from the direct secular structuring of the state. In the mosque, the interfacing of Singaporean Muslims on the one hand, and Bangladeshi Muslims on the other, yields important insights into the assertions of citizenship, and the negotiation of selfhood, that occurs at the religious margins of a state-defined secular society.
Keywords
margins, model citizenship, Muslim minorities, partial secularisms, Singapore
Discipline
Asian Studies | Religion | Sociology of Culture
Research Areas
Sociology
Publication
Annals of the American Association of Geographers
First Page
1
Last Page
19
ISSN
2469-4452
Identifier
10.1080/24694452.2022.2124146
Publisher
Taylor & Francis (Routledge): STM, Behavioural Science and Public Health Titles
Citation
WOODS, Orlando, & KONG, Lily.(2022). The partial secularisms of Singapore's Muslim minorities: Arbitraging model citizenship and (in)complete selves at the margins. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, , 1-19.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3646
Additional URL
http://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2022.2124146