Where sacred and secular meet: Singapore’s madrasahs serving religious and economic needs

Photo: Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Singapore's minister in charge of Muslim affairs, Minister for Communications and Information and the minister in charge of cyber security, speaking to Salaam Gateway at his office on March 22, 2018 in Singapore. Salaam Gateway/Razin Rahman

*A factual inaccuracy was corrected to the original story on April 15: "Around 27" students from Madrasah Aljunied will be enrolled in the International Baccelaureate (IB) Diploma programme next year, and not "25 students"; In Para 8 "judicially" erroneously used, corrected to "judiciously"

This article is the first of a two-part series on the Islamic school system in Singapore.

In a large studio with state-of-the-art technology Singapore is often associated with, Insyirah Abdullah looks like your typical producer overseeing the post-production of TV commercials that will hit global screens. Except that the young Muslim woman did not get there via the ‘typical’ routes.

Abdullah was educated in Singapore’s Islamic school system. Her career track – in the digital marketing world and in an international agency at that – is hardly the typical picture that secular Singapore expects from someone who attended a madrasah full-time. Most Muslim parents in the affluent city-state--the 5.6 million population had the fourth highest per capita GDP in the world by purchasing power in 2016, according to the World Bank--shy away from an Islamic school track because of the perception that their children would have limited career options.