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Hijrah walk: 21-km walk to know Muslims better

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Hijrah walk: 21-km walk to know Muslims better
Barr
03/19/02 at 04:59:32
[size=2]21-km walk to know Muslims better [/size]

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,1870,108896-1016488740,00.html?

AN OVERNIGHT trek from Hougang to Bukit Gombak ended at 7 am yesterday, with many non-Muslims admitting that it was a walk that has brought them a step closer to Islam and Muslim culture.

About 800 of them walked alongside 2,700 Muslims in groups of 30 during the 21-km walk, which started on Saturday at 10 pm.


One of them was police officer Javier Sim, 24.

'Now, I also have many more Muslim friends. I came from an all-Chinese SAP school and had just three Muslim friends. Now, I have made 10 more.'

The walk, which marks the start of the Islamic New Year according to the Hijrah calendar, was organised by seven grassroots organisation to foster, among other things, better inter-racial and inter-religious understanding.

As they trekked and interacted, the crowds of mainly young people also stopped to play games to gain a better insight into each other's race, religion and culture.

This is the second year non-Muslims were invited for the event, which began in 1996 as a Muslim youth event to commemorate Prophet Muhammad's travels from Mecca to Medina, which is known as the Hijrah.

Said army regular Noor Rahman Jaafar, 27: 'It is a good move to encourage non-Muslims to join us. It's a way of telling them about our religion, like the significance of the walk.'

Minister for Muslim Affairs Abdullah Tarmugi, who was the guest of honour for the closing ceremony, said: 'In Islam, the word Hijrah means to move from one place to another, so in a sense we try and move from our ignorance and intolerance to something that is good.'


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