The father of the 22-year-old Singaporean woman who was this month arrested and detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) revealed that he saw signs of her radicalisation two and a half years ago.

He did an interview with Berita Harian on Monday night (Jun. 12), in the wake of news breaking of Syaikhah Izzah Zahrah Al Ansari's arrest.

Syaikh Abdu Manaf Al Ansari, a Quranic teacher, reportedly noticed that in late 2014, his daughter started wearing black, as well as a niqab, a cloth that covers her face, exposing only her eyes.

Izzah is the second of the 49-year-old's five children, and he said he and his wife questioned her after he noticed that she had used the ISIS flag as her WhatsApp picture. He had also heard her saying that she believed ISIS was fighting for Islam.

Syaikh Abdu Manaf said his daughter denied being a member of ISIS when confronted, and was unable to counter his arguments against it:

"I told her all well-known Islamic scholars reject ISIS. I asked, is it halal in Islam to kill innocent people, children and women? I told her to show me evidence from the Quran and sunnah (prophetic teachings) that it is halal. She just kept silent."

But after she started wearing other colours, stopped wearing her niqab and started listening to music again, he thought she had moved on from her interest in ISIS.

He said "she was smart at hiding herself", and both parents did not realise she was in fact becoming even more radicalised.

And it was only after his daughter was arrested that he discovered documents in her room that had details on how to travel to Syria.

In his "disgust and anger", however, he threw them away, also in a bid to protect her — something he admitted to doing only in the course of investigation by the authorities.

"This should not have happened. I really regret it," he reportedly added.

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Top photo via Observer+ News, SMRT (Feedback)

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