About CIFU
Objectives
CIFU aims to promote an engaged community with a deep understanding of interfaith ideas and practices, through knowledge-production, research, consultancy and community engagement activities.
History
The Centre for Interfaith Understanding (CIFU) began as an interfaith initiative founded in 2019 with the objectives of promoting an inclusive space and critical engagements that bridges theory and practice on interfaith issues in a plural society. Its founding director was Mohamed Imran, a known interfaith advocate in Singapore.
Within a year, CIFU had established both local and international interfaith partnerships that benefited the Singapore interfaith communities through its various programmes. The inaugural Global Interfaith Leadership Programme had introduced a global scholar from Harvard Divinity School, Professor Francis Xavier Clooney, S.J. who gave a public lecture and conducted a master class for interfaith practitioners in Singapore. 2019 also saw CIFU engaging with interfaith leaders and scholars of international standing such as Venerable Master Hsin Tao (Museum of World Religions) and Professor Miroslav Volf (Yale Divinity School), as well as run a series of interfaith workshops and seminars with local faith experts.
In September 2020, CIFU received its status as a registered non-government organisation under the Registrar of Societies. Its founding Board members are prominent interfaith advocates in Singapore, with former minister Professor Yaacob Ibrahim, as the Advisor. Well-known interfaith advocate and facilitator, See Guat Kwee became CIFU’s first Chairperson, bringing the organisation into an exciting future for interfaith work in Singapore and contributing to the global discourse on faiths in a plural society.