Even as thousands of LGBT people, friends, family and supporters gathered at Hong Lim Park on Saturday for the annual Pink Dot event, the campaign by some Muslims against homosexuality was launched – in a little less ostentatious manner.
The WearWhite movement, a social media initiative inviting Muslims to return to their “natural disposition” (fitrah) and the Sunnah (way) of the Prophet Muhammad, was launched on 28 June 2014 in a less ostentatious manner than Pink Dot which saw a reported 26,000 people turn up at Speakers’ Corner.
The WearWhite campaign, organised by some Muslim teachers, was born from “observations of the growing normalization of LGBT in Singapore”, the campaign’s Facebook page says.
“The movement encourages a return to the values as guided by Islam,” the group explains. “These values include prioritizing the family and marriage, responsibility and justice and fair dealings.”
It called on all Muslims “not to participate in the LGBT event on 28th June”, an apparent reference to Pink Dot; and to emphasize “a return to natural relationships as found in Islam.”
At the heart of the movement is the belief that “marriage between a man and a woman forms the basis of the family.”
The WearWhite campaign is thus aimed at encouraging Muslims to “a return to the values as guided by Islam.”
“These values include prioritizing the family and marriage, responsibility and justice and fair dealings.”
The campaign prompted Deputy Prime Minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam; Minister in charge of Muslim Affairs, Yaacob Ibrahim; and the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS), to urge restraint and civility between the Muslims and the gay community.
The WearWhite campaign’s call for a symbolic wearing of white to evening prayers on the first day of Ramadan, which also fell on Saturday, was apparently heeded by many Muslims.
Pictures of individuals and groups clad in Islamic attire, such as the hijab and the thobe, were posted on the campaign group’s Facebook page on Saturday.
Some were apparently taken at various mosques around Singapore.
All pictures are from the Wear White Facebook page.
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