- 14 Feb 2023
Indigenising Islam as a Minority: A South African Community with Southeast Asian Origins, and the case of Shaykh Seraj Hendricks
(This event is organised by MEI Diffusion of Ideas research cluster.)
The Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore, in coordination with Wardah Books, invites you to join Dr Hisham A. Hellyer, a scholar in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (USA), Dr Suzaina Kadir, Vice Dean and Associate Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS and Mr Fazlur Rahman, a Muslim community leader for a discussion on the ‘indigenisation’ of Islam as minorities, with reflections on the South African Capetonian Muslim community in general, and the example of the late Shaykh Seraj Hendricks, often referred to as the ‘Mufti of Cape Town’.
Capetonian Muslims are indelibly impacted by South-east Asia, one of the main origins of Muslim South Africa, while deeply impacted by Western traditions. The community’s history as a deeply integral component of South Africa, which was cut off from much of the world due to its earlier apartheid regime, has since become a focus of interest of many Muslim minority communities.
Shaykh Seraj Hendricks was a contemporary South African Sufi shaykh and Islamic scholar who drew from his own Western education and training from sages and savants in Mecca, many of whom also taught numerous South-east Asian Muslim religious authorities.
This public talk was conducted both in-person and online via Zoom on Tuesday , 14 February 2023, from 5.00 pm to 6.30 pm SGT.
Watch the full talk here:
Listen to the podcast here:
Image photography by Shafiq Morton, May 18, 2015
About the Speakers
Scholar
Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (USA)
Dr Suzaina Kadir
Vice Dean (Academic Affairs) and Associate Professor
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS
Mr Fazlur Rahman Bin Kamsani
Muslim Community Leader
Dr. Hisham A. Hellyer is an academic and public intellectual who researches the politics and geopolitics of the contemporary Middle East, security studies globally, and the interplay between faith and modernity. A scholar in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (USA), and Senior Associate Fellow in International Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute (UK), he also serves as Fellow of Cambridge University’s Centre for Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. He was also appointed as the first senior scholar of the Azzawia Institute by the late Shaykh Seraj Hendricks, and professorial fellow of Cambridge Muslim College.
Having held senior attachments at the American University in Cairo, Harvard University, and the Brookings Institution, he is the author of 7 books include A Revolution Undone: Egypt’s Road beyond Revolt (Oxford University Press), Muslims of Europe: the ‘Other’ Europeans (Edinburgh University Press), The Islamic Tradition and the Human Rights Discourse (Atlantic Council), A Sublime Path: the Sufi Way of the Sages of Makka (Fons Vitae). Since 2016, he has been named every year as one of the ‘500 Most Influential Muslims in the World’ list (scholars’ section), instituted by Georgetown University (DC) and the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre (Amman). In 2020, he was elected as Fellow (FRSA) of the Royal Society of Arts in London for his scholarly and public impact.
Dr Suzaina Kadir’s research interests and area specialisation include religion and politics, with special focus on Muslim politics in Southeast Asia and South Asia; state-society relations and political development in Asia, with special focus on Southeast Asia; and regional security of Southeast Asia with a focus on non-traditional security issues affecting ASEAN such as women’s rights and the impact of religion.
She has been published in renowned journals and contributed to several books. In her free time, Suzaina volunteers at community-oriented projects and has served on several civic boards and panels. She is also actively engaged in fostering intra-faith dialogue. Suzaina teaches ethnic politics and governance in Asia and public policy in Southeast Asia. She will be introducing a course on Islamic frameworks of governance in the near future.
Mr Fazlur Rahman, a member of the Middle East Institute’s board, has decades of experience in real estate, financial advisory, investment, and client-relationship management with international firms. He is also an active Singapore community leader for racial and religious harmony, and holds appointments on the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) as well as Wakaf Masyarakat Singapura (Endowment for Singapore Muslim Community).
Event Details
National University of Singapore
Basil Room
11 Kent Ridge Dr, Singapore 119244
2. via zoom
