A 38-year-old teacher was detained last year under the Internal Security Act after he planned to fly to Gaza in Palestine to join a militant group and engage in combat with the Israeli forces.
Mohamed Khairul Riduan Mohamed Sarip, who was a teacher with the Ministry of Education (MOE), was arrested last October by the Internal Security Department (ISD). ISD stated in a news release on Wednesday that he was given a detention order under the ISA on November 30. (Jan 11).
He is the first teacher and government employee jailed under the ISA for offenses related to terrorism.
He is also the second person imprisoned under the ISA for intending to engage in armed conflict after being impacted by the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The first was Amirull Ali, who was arrested in March 2021 for preparing to attack local Jews at the Maghain Aboth Synagogue with a knife and for preparing to go to Gaza to fight Israel.
According to MOE, Khairul has not been a teacher since last October, according to questions from TODAY.
The ministry said it will continue to collaborate closely with ISD and the community to protect schools and students against such threats, adding that it takes this issue "extremely seriously."
Earlier in 2017, Syaikhah Izzah Zahrah Al Ansari, an infant care assistant at the PCF Sparkletots preschool on Tampines Street 32, had been held under the ISA for preparing to fly to Syria and join the violent Islamic State organization.
In order to identify individuals with extremist tendencies, government employees undergo "pretty extensive background checks," according to Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam on Wednesday. He continued by saying that Khairul formed his opinions after leaving the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, where he had previously worked.
ISD claimed that, prior to Khairul, it had looked into several government employees for possible radicalization, but that none of them were "severe enough to be dealt with" in accordance with the ISA.
Some were identified as being at risk or in the early stages of radicalization, and they received warnings and were directed to receive religious counseling, according to ISD.
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