40-year-old Imran Bin Mahmood was detained in Jan 2019 under the Internal Security Act (ISA) after investigations showed that he was “radicalised and harboured the intention.”
to join the Islamic State in Syria, said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in a press release on 25 Jun.
Iman had radicalised sometime in 2013 when he first started listening to online lectures by foreign religious preachers and had become a strong supporter of ISIS. By 2014, Imran was wanting to live under ISIS’s so-called caliphate in Syria/Iraq and researched on how to get himself into Syria. He was willing to draw arms to defend or expand ISIS’s territory and believed he would achieve martyrdom if he died fighting for ISIS.
Imran did not denounce ISIS even when it started to suffer territorial losses in 2017. He continued to believe that his radical views were rational, and it was his religious duty to fight alongside any group trying to establish a rightful caliphate in Syria. The groups he was prepared to join are namely the Free Syrian Army and Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (an Al-Qaeda aligned faction).
Meanwhile, restriction orders were issued for two other people for their involvement in terrorism-related conduct, said MHA. They are Mohamad Fairuz bin Junaidi and Rasidah binte Mazlan.
Rasidah, 62, was issued the restriction order in Mar 2019, for keeping in contact with multiple foreign entities suspected of being involved in terrorism-related activities. Investigations also showed that the communication was mainly driven by her sympathy for Muslims suffering in overseas conflicts.
As her indiscriminate online activity makes her vulnerable to adverse influence and recruitment by terrorists, she was placed on a restriction order to stop her from contacting with such elements. She is set to undergo counselling/rehabilitation.
Fairuz, 39, was issued the restriction order in Mar 2019 as well, after he was found to have been influenced by ISIS’s radical ideology and had considered travelling to Syria to join them. He also refused to believe the mainstream media reporting about ISIS’s atrocities and saw them as lies to discredit ISIS.
However, Fairuz began to sway in 2017 after reading negative reports and criticisms about ISIS on Facebook. He also started to have doubts about the ISIS’s legitimacy. Likewise, he is set to undergo counselling/rehabilitation while on the restriction order.
Separately, four other Singaporean ISA detainees have been released this year. They are Abd Rahim bin Abdul Rahman, Asyrani bin Hussaini, Syaikhah Izzah Zahrah Al Ansari and Muhammad Khairul bin Mohamed.
The four had shown good progress in their rehabilitation and were deemed not to pose a security threat that requires preventive detention.
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