Speeches

Opening remarks by Deputy Chief Executive of MUIS, Mr Khairul Anwar at NEXTGEN 2025: Singapore Mosque Youth Symposium

13 September 2025

Enhanced youth development initiatives launched to nurture confident, resilient Muslim youth through innovative mosque programmes and collaborative partnerships that go beyond traditional boundaries.

Distinguished guests, partners from the National Youth Council (NYC), youth leaders and volunteers, brothers and sisters.

Assalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh

Good morning and a very warm welcome to NextGen 2025: SG Mosque Youth Symposium.
First of all, I’d like to acknowledge the various groups who are joining us today – our partners from NYC, Malay Muslim and Indian Muslim Organisations, our subject matter experts (Ustaz Mizi, Ustaz Faheem and Ms Faridah), mosque staff and youth leaders, our madrasah students, our Youth aLIVE students, and our Institute of Higher Learning students. Thank you for spending your Saturday with us.

The heavy responsibility of nurturing our youth

I’d like to start with a short reflection. Like many of you, I’ve been reviewing the seerah (biography) of the Prophet s.a.w in honour of Rabi-ul Awwal, the month of his birth.
I’ve been listening and reading about the years before Prophethood was thrust upon him at age 40 – in essence, learning about his years as a youth and young man.
You realise how carefully God has nurtured the Prophet s.a.w. through these formative experiences to later carry his multi-faceted responsibilities as a Prophet and leaders.
These are stories that many of us are familiar with. He was orphaned thrice over as young child – it equipped him with empathy for the vulnerable. Like many Prophets, he worked as a shepherd as teenager – he earned an income and learned skills to manage large groups. He was called to mediate a dispute about which tribe in Quraysh got the honour to place the black stone in its place – taught him politics.

Context: Youth as a priority for Community Religious Life

Of course, this is nurturing in its the highest form but it reminds us of the enormous responsibility of nurturing our youth to be the best you can be, to prepare you to take up the mantle to “adult”, to lead your families and take the community forward.
This is a responsibility that MUIS and our mosques take seriously. We have identified youth development as a key focus in our refreshed Community Religious Life (CRL) framework, which we launched at the OMS Summit earlier this year.
We will back this up with additional resources (more about that later), and enhanced skills for our youth development officers and asatizah to serve and walk alongside our youths as teachers, mentors and counsellors. But most importantly, we want to do this by designing our responses with you – our youths.

Vision: Confident, resilient & engaged Muslim youth

We are not doing this alone. This emphasis on nurturing, supporting and empowering our youths is a national priority. Just last week, Acting Minister David Neo spoke about coming together to work on the SG Youth Plan. Our work will support this collective effort. I would like to thank NYC again for their partnership and helping shape the engagement sessions this afternoon.
The SG Youth Plan engagements have gathered over 200,000 responses. While Kah Kuang will share the detailed insights after this, we know from the responses that youths of this generation seek purpose, want to contribute and value connection and relationships.
This is clearly where faith can play a role. We read often in the Qur’an the phrase

الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالَِِا ت

meaning “those who believe and do good and beneficial deeds”. In other words, those with a positive relationship with God and with those around you – your families, community and country.

And in the hands of specialists (as Ustaz Mizi and Ustaz Faheem will soon demonstrate), the wisdom of our tradition can also be an anchor and compass amid turbulent times. And what flux we are witnessing around us today!
Our vision is clear: we want our Muslim youths to be confident, resilient and empowered.
To be confident in their religious identity and practice and that they can live these out in Singapore, supported by family, friends, teachers and community.
To be resilient against the many challenges that life will throw at us and the many contesting ideas and lifestyles that we come across.
And to be empowered to make wise life choices anchored in timeless principles, and to contribute to the betterment of the world around them.

Faith & Future: Designing the future of our religious programmes with youth

Which brings us to theme of our symposium today – Faith & Future: Navigating Life, Anchored in Faith.
As you proceed to our breakout sessions later today, I would like to challenge you to stretch your imagination about how our mosques can support your journey. I call this the “3 Beyonds” (and I promise I won’t be speaking about the Barzakh or Akhirah).

The First “Beyond”: Beyond the typical mosque-goer

As part of this movement, our mosques are working to design programmes with the user in mind. But who is that user that they have in mind? All of you in this room are deeply engaged but there are others who are less connected to us.
If we are serious about faith helping Singapore Muslim youths navigate life, then that sincerity means we must reach as widely as possible to everyone who has a need. How can we be radically hospitable?

The Second “Beyond”: Beyond the typical boundaries of the mosque

Can we think beyond the physical walls of the mosque – tapping on the talent, knowledge and networks of our mosques to meet youths where they are, physically or virtually?
Can we go beyond the typical topics to tackle real needs and pains? Topics such as fitting in and navigating ethics at work and play, or managing relationships that leave you feeling stuck in your old habits. Lots to explore in the areas of identity, relationships and livelihood.
Can we go beyond the usual formats of classes and kuliahs, and experiment with what works for you? The more senior of you may remember the Cakap Pasal Remaja series organised by some of our past mosque youth leaders, where mosque youths used theatre to explore contemporary issues – from mental health to social belonging. This is what it looks like to work with youth in a format they connect with, while still grounded in our faith.

The Third “Beyond”: Beyond the capabilities of any one mosque

Lastly, how can mosques expand your operating space by partnering others? We can call this Mosque + X, where X may be partners like NYC, experts like a theatre company or mental health expert. X can also be three other mosques who share the same challenges that your mosque does. No one mosque can serve the diverse range of needs but as a network, we can ensure many more needs are met.
MUIS will be actively facilitating such collaborations. We will soon open applications for the CRL Collaboration Fund ($1 million over 3 years) to co-fund joint programme and product development by our mosques. This aims to build a culture of collaborative experimentation, delivery and learning so we can respond with speed and creativity to the needs of the day.

Call to action

So I urge you – bring your whole self to the breakout sessions, speak up, exchange ideas, and explore partnerships. No idea is too small. Through the Collaboration Fund, some of these ideas will be seeded and grown. Our wish is that by next year’s symposium, each District will showcase some of their impactful youth-led projects.
Imagine if every mosque youth wing could say: “Here is our signature initiative, owned and led by our youths, making a real difference in our community.” That is the legacy we want to build together.

Closing

Let me end by thanking all our speakers, participants, and especially our partners from NYC. A special appreciation also to the organising committee – our mosque Youth Development Officers and volunteers – who have worked tirelessly from the ground up to make this Symposium a reality.
To all our youths here: your voices matter, your energy matters, your faith matters. We need you to create the future you wish to see.
I wish you all a wildly creative and energising engagement today.
May Allah bless your efforts and guide you in anchoring your faith and embodying the spirit of rahmah into action, and action into impact.

Wassalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.