Singapore authorities place religious teacher under RO for extremist teachings

A religious teacher and another person were placed under restriction order (RO) by Singapore authorities for extremist teachings that promote violence, according to a Ministry of Home Affairs statement. Murad Mohd Said, 46, has been placed on a RO under the Internal Security Act for spreading exclusivist and extremist teachings that promote violence, the statement issued Wednesday stated. He taught that it was compulsory to kill apostates, defined broadly to include non-believers, Sufis, Shi'ites, and Muslims who have renounced Islam or disregarded texts and rulings from the Quran and Sunnah, it said.

The statement said a person issued a RO has to adhere several conditions and restrictions such as not allowed to travel out of Singapore and change address and employment. Said also taught that Muslims were allowed to defend themselves by waging “armed jihad” against “infidels who persecuted them”, it said. Murad also encouraged his students to withdraw from Singapore's secular society, disregard secular laws, and adhere to the rulings of Syariah law instead, the ministry said said. His student Razali Abas, a 56-year-old technician, met him in 2012 and started attending his classes.

Abas was placed under a RO to “prevent him from continuing his downward spiral into extremism”, the statement said. Over time, Abas became convinced that it was legitimate to kill those he felt were oppressors of Islam, it said He began to seek out individuals with militant-looking profiles on Facebook, seeing them as “heroes” who were making sacrifices he could not make himself, according to the statement.. It said their posts also reinforced his belief in armed violence and his admiration and support for terrorist groups such as the Al Qaeda.

The statement added that Murad's binary “us versus them” worldview and violent teachings, which he propagated to his students and followers, could have led them to develop extremist views, as well as lead to inter- and intra-faith tensions. His statements on the primacy of Syariah law over secular laws also undermine Singapore's secular nation-state system, the ministry said Murad is no longer accredited as a freelance religious teacher by the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis). It is mandatory for Islamic religious teachers to be accredited under the Asatizah Recognition Scheme since January 2017, according to the statement. While Murad was issued an RO on December 5, Abas was placed under the order in October last year.

(With inputs from agencies.)