Police have submitted their investigation report to Singapore’s Attorney-General regarding a local Imam who insulted Christians and Jews. Meanwhile, the clergy in question, Imam Nalla Mohamed Abdul Jameel, 47, apologized to a group of leaders from various faiths at a closed-door meeting, Singapore’s Strait Times reported Sunday morning.
According to Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim, the apology has been well received by both the Muslim community and leaders of other faiths, showing “a certain sense of unity within Singapore.”
“It shows that the efforts we have put in over many, many years to build up ties between the inter-faith communities are bearing fruit,” Minister Ibrahim noted.
Last February, a video of the imam reciting a prayer in Arabic that said “God help us against Jews and Christians” surfaced online.
In his apology, the Imam said: “I am filled with great remorse for the inconvenience, tension and trauma that I have caused to this peaceful country.”
The imam explained that the verse read, “God help us against Jews and Christians,” came from an old Arabic text he had learned in his village in India, not from the Koran.
Minister Yaacob said the apology was “a good step towards some form of reconciliation,” adding, “We have to wait and see whether or not the police will take the apology into account in their overall assessment of the incident.”
The Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP), the forum where the Imam had made his statement in the first place, Issued a statement urging Singaporeans to move forward from the incident, stressing that “Islam, like all other religions, enjoins peace and kindness towards others.”
Well, the jury is still out on that one…