Singapore’s top Islamic authority allowed yesterday local Muslims to skip Friday prayers at mosques as smog levels hit a new record high due to forest fires in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation.
“The Office of Mufti opines that it is permitted for male Muslims not to attend Friday prayers during the subsistence of haze which may have hazardous effects to their health or may potentially threaten their lives,” the religious authority said.
It said that the men may perform the midday prayers somewhere else instead of mosques.
Friday mosque prayers are obligatory among devout Muslim males.
Muslims, mostly ethnic Malays, comprise more than 13 percent of Singapore’s population, according to 2012 data.
Singapore’s smog index breached the critical 400 level yesterday, which is potentially life-threatening to the ill and elderly people if sustained over a 24-hour period. The index eased off in the afternoon but remained at officially “unhealthy” levels. Indonesian and Singaporean officials have been holding emergency talks on how to extinguish the fires on farms and plantations on Sumatra, which are also affecting Malaysia.
Indonesian helicopters have been sent to Sumatra for cloud-seeding operations to trigger rain and douse the fires, some of them deliberately set off to clear land for cultivation.
Indonesia is a sprawling archipelago stretching between mainland Asia and Australia.
Despite generating the haze, Indonesia remained a popular destination for Singapore residents seeking short-term relief from the bad air, a survey showed yesterday.
Skyscanner, a global travel search site, said in a statement that online queries on outbound flights had risen by 22 percent from Singapore between June 17 and 20, with Indonesia’s resort island Bali as the top destination followed by Bangkok, Hong Kong, Phuket in Thailand and Indonesia’s capital Jakarta.
Bali and Jakarta are located far enough from Sumatra to remain unaffected by the smog.
Singapore Muslims urged to skip mosques in haze
Singapore Muslims urged to skip mosques in haze
Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott
- A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival
SYDENY: A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by Daesh.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”
FASTFACTS
• Abdel-Fattah responded, saying it was ‘a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.’
• Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.'”
The Adelaide Festival said in a statement on Monday that three board members and the chairperson had resigned. The festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex moment.”
a complex and unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board decision.
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticized protest marches against Israel’s war in Gaza held since 2023.
Albanese said last week a Royal Commission will consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia. Albanese said on Monday he would recall parliament next week to pass tougher hate speech laws.
On Monday, New South Wales state premier Chris Minns announced new rules that would allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls.
Minns said the new rules were prompted by the difficulty in closing a prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.
The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield said the rules were ill-considered and councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.
“Freedom of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it is done in a peaceful way,” Mayor Frank Carbone told Reuters.
