PhD defence

Blurring the Future: AI Regurgitation and the Singapore Muslim Community

• J.M. Mcgrail

Date

Friday 18 September 2026

Time

11:30 - 12:30 hour

Address

Academy Building
Rapenburg 73
2311 GJ Leiden

Supervisor(s)

• Prof.dr. B. Barendregt
• dr. A.L. Littlejohn

Summary

In 2014, the Singaporean state began its Smart Nation project with Data Spark: a collaboration with the state-owned telecoms company Singtel. The project placed thousands of cameras and sensors around the city, in order to create a data feedback loop which informs government policy.  Since 2017, with assistance from Japanese tech conglomerate NEC, these cameras have been equipped with AI-enabled facial recognition software. In the intervening years, this network has expanded. By 2030, the Singaporean police aims to have 200,000 cameras across the Island. The state positions itself as a testbed for techno-governance, and a hub for AI in Southeast Asia. The Singaporean state imagines its future as one where technology and data feedback loops ensure the smooth functioning of government policy.

Situated Within this wider techno-governance milieu is MUIS, the Islamic Religious Authority. As a statutory board, MUIS has close ties to the ruling PAP (People’s Action Party). Consequently, the religious authority often find themselves acting as intermediaries between the State and the Singapore Muslim Community. This position can be fraught given the governments historical marginalisation of the Muslim community. MUIS, therefore, represents a site where the governments techno-futurist imaginaries come into contact with the messy reality of people’s everyday lives. My research arises from this tension, explores how MUIS takes up government-promoted AI technologies for religious governance, and examines how these technological innovations are received by Singaporean Muslims.

I find that whilst these technologies dominate future imaginaries of Singapore, Singaporean Muslims resist by imagining alternatives.

PhD dissertations

Approximately one week after the defence, PhD dissertations by Leiden PhD students are available digitally through the Leiden Repository, that offers free access to these PhD dissertations. Please note that in some cases a dissertation may be under embargo temporarily and access to its full-text version will only be granted later.

Press enquiries (journalists only)

[phone]
[e-mail]

General information

Beadle's Office
[e-mail]
[phone]