Source: papers.ssrn.com

Singapore is a secular state with a Muslim minority (about 15 per cent, mostly ethnic Malay). However, the Administration of Muslim Law Act (AMLA), which governs personal status, does not define ‘Muslim’. This falls to the Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS, Singapore Islamic Religious Council) acting in its judicial function. In 1997 it decided that the Ahmadiyya were not Muslim, thus judicially confirming the widely held Sunni opinion that the Ahmadiyya are a deviant sect. In doing so, MUIS drew authority from (a) British-Indian precedent, (b) contemporary Pakistan precedent and (c) theology on the finality of revelations to the Prophet Muhammad (the Seal of the Prophets). Each source was used selectively but there is an especially heavy reliance on Pakistan precedent. This source is not binding in Singapore, because the Pakistan constitutional and positive laws expressing Islam have no parallel in Singapore. The MUIS decision is thus highly questionable at best; in the strict view it is an unjustifiable application of a foreign precedent and, therefore, wrong. The British-Indian precedent says that the Ahmadiyya are Muslim. The theology can be made to read as neutral or negative depending on one’s purpose…. continue reading at papers.ssrn.com

To know more about Jama’at-e-Ahmadiyya Singapore, please check: www.ahmadiyya.org.sg