Da'wah Thoughts

This graph is from the Department of Statistics report on religion in Singapore.



Note that the "no religion" category of Chinese - 18.6% of 80% is still approx 15% of the total SG population - more than the entire population of Muslims or Christians.

Maybe da'wah in SG has been distracted into a Christian-targeted approach. This is probably because we are influenced by the experience of Muslim missionaries in the West, who live in a Christian or post-Christian setting. The reality is that there is a large number of people who are religiously not committed, and it is only logical that we should work harder to reach out to them, instead of aiming at people who already have a religious position.

Islam 2010

Ive been thinking a lot about using the new media for dakwah, and realised that there is much that we can do to create a presence in the new media world and promote islam.

lets start with my youtube channel. youtube is watched by everybody. we need to be in it, and in it in a BIG way.

i have already started creating my ppt presentations for the channel. that will provide a start point. then we need other stuff, home made reality stuff.

there are hundreds of personal videos of people interviewing themselves about their conversions to islam. but none from sg. we need to do this. all that is needed is a laptop with a camera, and willing participants. i aim for 20 to start with.

next we need staged vids of conversion processes. coming to darul arqam, signing up for class, converting, etc.

another thing is using wikis and videojugs. we need to have wikis on conversion, how to pray, fast, etc etc.

in essence, we create a new darul arqam in the virtual world.

the other aspect is to use facebook and twitter. we need a fb page, but its not about events only, like the present fb page people of darul arqam. it has to generate content, twitter-like, on a regular basis to maintain interest. it needs to be aimed at non-muslims, so it wont have doas, etc. just feelgood stuff.

we need to know who we're targeting. young 18 - 30s. english speaking Chinese and Others.

islam has to be hip. how? it has to be different. the different thing attracts the curiosity of the young. element of questioning the status quo. need to up the glamour factor - need pretty faces and nice voices nice clothes. need a cause. young pple are into causes nowadays. the cause is not to be ISLAM per se, or "the truth" etc.by itself. it has to be things like a worldwide brotherhood, courage, change, being strong.

your ideas.

Christians May Legally Use "Allah" in Malaysia

I too am concerned at possible misuse and abuse, which will undoubtedly happen.
However I still believe that this can be turned to Muslim advantage, if Muslims act, instead of react.

A gap in the wall may seem to open one way, but it is up to us to push the other way.

Muslims dont have to believe the Christian line that they need to use Allah for the reasons they give.

The reality is that they are under threat of conversions to Islam, which is much more numerous than vice versa in Msia.

They fear that with a whole new generation of Msian Chrstians raised in Bahasa M, schooled in Bahasa M, speaking in BM, exposed to Malay culture and entertainment, and with the dominant cultural and national discourse being Malay-Muslim, that their religion is under threat of being an alien anachronism, and even more Christians will become Muslims.

Hence the step taken, which I see to be a desparate act of a losing adversary.
Just as Muslims fear their use of "Allah", they also fear that it would weaken their community - imagine what great crisis it would take to force Muslims in a country to start using "Buddha" instead of Allah.

Malaysian Muslims can either fear the tiger, or ride on it.
But they must not be distracted by the politics, which will lead them away from what they should be doing, in order to achieve success. This is exactly the diversion that the Christians expect, in fact, they are the hidden hand behind orchestrating most of the drama that happens.

In every crisis there is opportunity.

We must stop treating the Christian evangelist as the monster under our childhood bed. We are bigger and stronger than him, and here's a secret - he's more scared of us than we are of him.

They are forced to teach their people to believe and love "Allah", so as to keep their minds.
Then we must teach them that "Allah" is One, and He will get their hearts.

May Allah guide us and give us strength and patience to stay united, and to give us wisdom to see things as they truly are.