Today-Jan 12
A 38-year-old teacher who was planning to travel to Gaza in Palestine to join a militant group and fight against the Israeli military was arrested last year under the Internal Security Act (ISA). 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). He was issued a detention order under ISA on Nov 30, ISD said in a press release on Wednesday (Jan 11). He is the first MOE teacher and public servant to be detained under ISA for terrorism-related offences. He is also the second person to be detained under the ISA for wanting to carry out armed violence because he was affected by the Israel-Palestine conflict. The first was Amirull Ali, who was detained in March 2021 for planning to carry out a knife attack against Jews at the local Maghain Aboth Synagogue, and for planning to travel to Gaza to fight against Israel. In response to queries from TODAY, MOE said that Khairul has not been teaching any classes since last October. Adding that it regards this case “very seriously”, the ministry said it will continue to work closely with ISD and the community to safeguard schools and students against such threats. Previously in 2017, an infant care assistant Syaikhah Izzah Zahrah Al Ansari, who worked at the PCF Sparkletots preschool at Tampines Street 32, had been detained under the ISA for making plans to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State militant group. Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said on Wednesday that there are “fairly thorough background checks” on government employees to uncover radicalist tendencies in people. “Some were assessed to be vulnerable or in nascent stages of radicalisation, and they were issued with warnings and sent for religious counselling,” ISD said. Khairul was self-radicalised and ready to travel to Gaza in Palestine under the guise of humanitarian aid to join Hamas and its military wing, the ISD said. Read more at: https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/teacher-moe-detained-isa-hamas-palestine-2086756
