Thread by @kvsarmaj

Question:
How does Singapore handle inter faith marriages?

The answer may shock you based on where you stand on the universality of LKY's ways.

Singapore, from what I understand, has no restrictions on inter-faith marriage except when a Muslim man is involved. The bride has to convert. The State trains the woman in a conversion course and facilitates the conversion.

The groom is interviewed to make sure he can help her in her new religion with customs etc.

But a non-muslim man cannot convert to Islam and marry a Muslim woman, generally speaking. To do so, he has to go through a 1-year conversion course.

In 2016 statistics, inter-ethnic marriages went up from 15.4% in 2006 to 21.5%. Out of these inter-ethnic marriages, 33.9% were Muslim.

In fact, in their official statistics, the government notes statistics of Muslims within inter-ethnic statistics prominently.

And yet, despite all this, the % population of Muslims hasn't really gone up! Quite a riddle. How are they able to achieve this?

There are clear advantages of building a country from the scratch.

I think one lesson that is worth learning for us is this:

Assuming that the Indian State is capable (of course, we know there are shortcomings with our babu-s):

It is probably a good idea to isolate Muslims and -

1) State should handle the conversion process and must ensure the girl understands Islam fully. No "mah right ... mah rules". Why? Well, the sanctity of Islam must be protected. This itself will put the dread of stubborn rules of a proper Islamic life in the girl.

2) To make 1 effective, the State should outlaw Muslim man marrying a non-Muslim woman. Islam anyway prohibits same-sex marriages - so that's the end of it anyway.

3) Non-muslim man should be given the ritualistic circumcision and must follow Islam for 1 year strictly to even begin dreams of marrying a Muslim bride.

4) Civil marriages should be removed from the ambit of Islamic law completely and must be placed strictly under either Hindu law or a new law governing such marriages.

5) State should be able to intervene and forcefully separate the woman if she is not able to faithfully follow Islam.

All this must be done only and only with the stated goal of peacefully protecting the sanctity of the most peaceful religion in the world.

The catch of course is that the State and its apparatus have to extremely deft in handling the application of such laws. Not only that they would probably need to be trained in handling the community peacefully - if you know what I mean.

And we know how pathetically underequipped our admin is. This is again the reason why laws are not going to help at least as of now. But yes, that should be the final goal - bringing legal recourse with a strong administration to make sure of proper conduct in general.