Getting S’poreans to Report Radicalisation of Loved Ones

TODAY

14 June 2017

Kumar Ramakrishna

Syaikhah Izzah Zahrah Al Ansari, a 22-year-old Singaporean contract infant-care assistant with People’s Action Party Community Foundation Sparkletots, was detained this month under the Internal Security Act for extremist leanings, having been radicalised four years ago by online Islamic State (IS) propaganda.

That Izzah happens to be the first Singaporean female to be detained for subscribing to violent extremist ideology is of note, but not particularly surprising.

Izzah follows in the footsteps of women from Malaysia and Indonesia seeking to decamp to Syria as an “IS bride” since the declaration by the terror group of its so-called caliphate three years ago.

What is more worrying is that her family, even when faced with mounting evidence of her radicalisation, failed to alert the authorities.

… Kumar Ramakrishna is Associate Professor, Head of Policy Studies and Coordinator of the National Security Studies Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University.

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