This paper considers how two facets of identity—religion and class—are performed, (re)produced and negotiated within the spaces of the Christian school, home and church in Singapore. We show how the social structuring of one space can inform and influence the structuring of another. Spaces of Christianity in Singapore tend to be mutually reinforcing, strengthening the linkages between religion and class, and in particular reifying the position of Christianity as a religion of the privileged classes. However, the ways in which Christian spaces are reified can become problematic when space is in fact shared with less privileged groups, such as Christians from lower socio-economic classes, and foreign domestic workers. In such instances, the interlinked spaces of Christian privilege and position can cause differences within the community to become points of negotiation and compromise. As a result, they can lead to the social (re)positioning of individuals, and the reproduction of both inclusionary and exclusionary forms of religious citizenship. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

As a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society, Singapore prizes religious harmony and social cohesion. Given that Salafism is commonly assumed to be linked with conservative attitudes, exclusivism, extremism and even jihadism, Salafis in Singapore have been the subject of public attention and concern. However, there is diversity within the community of Singaporean Muslims who identify as Salafi or have been labelled as Salafi. This paper explores the contemporary landscape of Salafism in Singapore through interviews with individuals from various Salafi and Salafi-affiliated groups. This paper seeks to clarify the differences among the various Salafi groups as well as explain how Salafi ideas have developed in Singapore and the extent to which contemporary Salafis in Singapore find their ideas acceptable in Singapore’s secular and democratic context.

For Marcel Mauss (2001 [1902]), magic involves border-crossing, with powers founded upon the potentiality presented by the exotic and the unknown. In a similar vein, Webb Keane (2003) points to the movement of religious objects that, via their very materiality, acquire new meanings as they move between one “representational economy” and another. Here, I look at the consumption of Thai necromantic objects by Chinese Singaporean Buddhists. These are, in some cases, Thai body parts, ritually processed and sold via the international marketplace via Chinese Singaporean entrepreneurs and used for local business competition. I argue that, through this process, these objects become fused with Chinese religious notions of potency, Orientalist exoticization, and a fetishization of the entrepreneur. In doing so, these dreams about the neighbours complicate our understandings of cosmopolitanism, masculinity, and the vicissitudes of capitalism.