A total of 37 individuals have been picked up in the last few weeks by Singapore's Internal Security Department (ISD) for comments or posts supportive of terrorist rhetoric that they published online.
Of these, 14 are Singaporean. Their ages range between 19 and 62, 10 are male and four are female.
Most of these, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said in a press release on Tuesday (Nov. 24), posted sentiments that "incited violence or stoked communal unrest" on social media.
These comments and posts, MHA said, were made in response to the recent spate of terrorist attacks in France following the republication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad by French magazine Charlie Hebdo on September 1 this year.
A quick note on what happened
Following that, French teacher Samuel Paty displayed these cartoons to students in a class of freedom of expression in early October. This triggered an online hate campaign against him, and on Oct. 16, he was beheaded by an 18-year-old Chechen refugee from Russia.
Subsequently, at Paty's funeral, French president Emmanuel Macron posthumously bestowed Paty with the Légion d'honneur, France's highest civilian award, and vowed to continue his efforts in free expression.
This triggered a new round of fury among groups of Muslims globally, triggering protests and calls to boycott France and French products, especially in Muslim-majority countries.
Comments & posts supported Paty's beheading, called for violence against France & Macron
The MHA said the posts and comments from the Singaporeans being investigated, as well as the 23 foreigners, mostly supported Paty's beheading as well as the attacks that followed elsewhere, or incited violence against France or Macron for the French government's defence of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons.
Some of these individuals commented on the same discussion threads online, but MHA said they were mostly not connected to one another.
Crucially, though, the ministry noted that "there is no indication that any of these individuals had been planning any attacks or protests in Singapore".
1 Malaysian & 15 Bangladeshis deported, 7 others still being investigated
Of the foreigners in this group, 16 have already been sent home after ISD finished its investigations into their actions.
One, who is Malaysian, had the intention to travel to Syria or Palestine to undertake armed violence, while another 15, who are Bangladeshi, had posted content inciting violence or stoking unrest in response to the French terror attacks.
Many of the Bangladeshis who were sent home were here working in the construction industry, MHA said.
Investigations into the remaining seven foreigners are still ongoing.
26-year-old Bangladeshi construction worker arrested under ISA with multiple knives in his possession
Photo courtesy of MHA
The ISD also arrested one individual, Ahmed Faysal, a 26-year-old Bangladeshi who has been in Singapore since early 2017.
MHA said Faysal first became radicalised in 2018, after coming across online propaganda from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The ministry said he was attracted to the goal of establishing an Islamic caliphate in Syria, and wanted to travel there to fight alongside ISIS against the Syrian government.
A year later, he changed allegiances to another group, the Hayat Tahrir Al-Shaam (HTS), which was also fighting to establish its own Islamic caliphate in Syria. He also donated money to a Syria-based organisation aimed at furthering HTS's cause in Syria.
The MHA said he also developed an interest in defending the rights of oppressed Muslims in Pakistan, and wanted to travel to Kashmir to engage in armed violence as well.
Created multiple accounts to share terrorist propaganda
In Singapore, he created multiple social media accounts under fake names and shared posts that promoted armed violence, and to prepare himself for armed jihad, he watched firearms-related videos online.
Despite these plans he made, though, the authorities said Faysal did not show any indication of interest to carry out any attacks or acts of violence here in Singapore.
Some of the knives Ahmed Faysal had collected while working here after he was radicalised. Photos courtesy of MHA
He was arrested and detained under the Internal Security Act on Nov. 2, and officers found in his possession multiple knives of different types, including some that were foldable.
In an interview with the media on Tuesday afternoon on the sidelines of another event, Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam noted that Faysal was collecting knives he purchased here to kill Hindu police officers back in Bangladesh.
"He was encouraging radicalism, attacks on French interests, you work it out for yourself — if he finds that he can't go back to Bangladesh immediately, could he have decided one day to just attack people in Singapore?
It's very easy to switch. And his propaganda, his call for others to attack people of other faiths, that could have influenced other people too. So, these things have no boundaries, and that is why we have detained him."
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Top photos courtesy of MHA