from his book Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going (Asia One, 8 March 2011)

I have to speak candidly to be of value, but I do not want to offend the Muslim community... I think we were progressing very nicely until the surge of Islam came, and if you asked me for my observations, the other communities have easier integration – friends, inter-marriages and so on – than Muslims... I would say, today, we can integrate all religions and races, except Islam.

— Lee Kuan Yew

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "I have to speak candidly to be of value, but I do not want to offend the Muslim community... I think we were progressing very nicely until the surge of Islam came, and if you asked me for my observations, the other communities have easier integration – friends, inter-marriages and so on – than Muslims... I would say, today, we can integrate all religions and races, except Islam." in the context of "from his book Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going (Asia One, 8 March 2011)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Quote Image
Source: Wikiquote: "Lee Kuan Yew" (Quotes, 2010s) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Lee Kuan Yew

About Lee Kuan Yew

Lee Kuan Yew (16 September 1923 – 23 March 2015) was a Singaporean politician. He was the Secretary-general of the People's Action Party (1954–1992) and Singapore Prime Minister (1959–1990), Senior Minister (1990–2004), Minister Mentor (2004–2011).