Nine Official Religions

Ok, this has got nothing to do with the on-going Lin You and Xu Song Fa sedition thing.

I was looking at Singapore Idler's blog on the Commemoration at Kranji. I thought the 60th year anniversary of the end of World War II warrants far greater attention than the two guys going to court for talking about dogs in taxis and lousy photoshop skills.

One of the photos show the 9 religious leaders collectively saying a prayer for the glorious dead. I remember that during those Commissioning Parades at SAFTI MI, there were 9 religious leaders who would bless the newly commissioned officers. I hope this works. I am counting on it.

I cannot remember the 9 different religions. I'll rattle off the few I know: Taoism, Buddhism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity, Judaism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Bahai.

Eh, that's 9 right? I do know! Haha, but what's Bahai?

So I did a check. First stop: Inter-Religious Organisation - Singapore.



Wow, goes to show how wrong I am.

This is official:
Hindu, Jewish, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Taoist, Christian, Muslim, Sikh and Bahá'í.
There's no Catholicism. I suppose it is combined with Christianity? And yes, it is Bahá'í and not Bahai.

Oh, guess what, the religious symbols are "trade marks". Heh heh...



I'm familiar with the other religions but Bahá'í and Zoroaster, I am not familiar at all. I am pretty sure wikipedia can shed some light and I am correct. Read on and you can find links from Zoroaster to Nietzsche to Richard Strauss to Stanley Kubrick to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Sweet!

So looking at Singapore Idler's photo, I still can't quite figure out who's who....

But my take is that from left to right:

Christian Sikh Muslim Zoroastrian Taoist Buddhist Bahá'í Jewish Hindu

I can't decide between the Zoroastrian and the Bahá'í.

help...