U.S.-Singapore Relations 2004
American and Muslim Students Break Bread Together
March 13, 2004
A dozen U.S. Fulbrighters and “semester abroad” undergraduates currently studying in Singapore met informally with an equal number of Muslim Society student leaders from the National University and activists from the Islamic community on March 13. The gathering continued a discussion begun two months ago, when a handful of American Fulbrighters and Singaporean Muslim students met over a dinner table in the Malay Village to talk together, ask/answer questions, and learn more about each other. Its success resulted in this second dinner-discussion, involving even more American and Singaporean students. It proved to be another good fun night of relaxed conversation and mutual discovery. “This is the first time since coming to Singapore that I’ve really had a chance to talk with NUS students who are Muslim,” one U.S. exchange student remarked, while a Singaporean commented on the openness to ideas and general spirit of optimism she observed among the Americans with whom she spoke. It was people-to-people diplomacy at its best. A dialogue was resumed, and there’s a common interest in continuing it. Plans are already underway for a third US/Muslim student meal at a restaurant, this time in Singapore’s Little India.