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  • Home
  • About RSIS
      • Introduction
      • Building the Foundations
      • Welcome Message
      • Board of Governors
      • Staff Profiles
        • Executive Deputy Chairman's Office
        • Dean's Office
        • Management
        • Distinguished Fellows
        • Faculty and Research
        • Associate Research Fellows, Senior Analysts and Research Analysts
        • Visiting Fellows
        • Adjunct Fellows
        • Administrative Staff
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      • Endowed Professorships
      • Career Opportunities
      • Getting to RSIS
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      • Research Centres
        • Centre for Multilateralism Studies (CMS)
        • Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS Centre)
        • Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS)
        • Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS)
        • International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR)
      • Research Programmes
        • National Security Studies Programme (NSSP)
        • Science and Technology Studies Programme (STSP)
        • Studies in Inter-Religious Relations in Plural Societies (SRP) Programme
      • Research @ RSIS
  • Graduate Education
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      • Overview
      • MSc (Asian Studies)
      • MSc (International Political Economy)
      • MSc (International Relations)
      • MSc (Strategic Studies)
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  • Deradicalisation in Singapore: Past, Present and Future
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Deradicalisation in Singapore: Past, Present and Future
by Shashi Jayakumar

20 August 2020

According to some estimates, Singapore, a cosmopolitan city‑state, has the most diverse population on earth. Within its 721.5 square kilometres, the resident population (5.8 million as of March 2020) ethnically comprises individuals of Chinese (76.2%), Indian (9%) and Malay (13.4%) descent. The main religions represented are Christianity (18.8%), Buddhism/Taoism (43.2%), Islam (14%) and Hinduism (5%). Four main languages are spoken, with English the working language.

The country has not seen terrorist attacks in the age of al‑Qaeda and Islamic State (IS). But one of Singapore’s closest neighbours, Indonesia, has repeatedly been targeted by the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), al‑Qaeda’s principal offshoot in Southeast Asia, and other violent extremists. The most deadly incident in Indonesia was the Bali attacks of October 2002, which killed 202 individuals. Several other attacks in Indonesia through the decade were executed by the JI. Singapore itself has had close brushes with the group. The local JI cell’s plans to attack Mass Rapid Transit stations, government ministries and foreign embassies were interdicted by Singapore’s Internal Security Department (ISD) by the arrests of cell members in 2001 and 2002.

Since 2001, 94 individuals from the Muslim population in Singapore have been found to have been radicalised or involved in terrorism‑related activities at a level considered serious enough by the authorities to be placed under preventive detention, which is provided for under the Internal Security Act (ISA). Many have since been released, either after the lapse of a detention order (DO) or through the issuing of a ministerial direction suspending the detention (a suspension direction, or SD). Upon their release, ex‑detainees are typically for a time placed on restriction orders (RO), which restrict movements and impose other conditions, with the possibility of the individual again being detained if the conditions are not complied with or if there are signs of the individual being radicalised again. Others (mainly those judged to have been less involved in serious extremist activity or to pose less of a threat to society at large) were never detained but placed directly under ROs. Of those still in detention at the time of writing (July 2020), approximately six are individuals from the JI, while 16 are self‑radicalised individuals, mostly arrested in the 2010s, without formal affiliation to any extremist group (but with many showing sympathy for or declaring allegiance to IS).

Categories: Working Papers
Source: Deradicalisation in Singapore: Past, Present and Future
Citation: Shashi Jayakumar, Deradicalisation in Singapore: Past, Present and Future, The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) Report, King's College London, United Kingdom, 20 August 2020

Last updated on 21/08/2020

According to some estimates, Singapore, a cosmopolitan city‑state, has the most diverse population on earth. Within its 721.5 square kilometres, the resident population (5.8 million as of March 2020) ethnically comprises individuals of Chinese (76.2%), Indian (9%) and Malay (13.4%) descent. The main religions represented are Christianity (18.8%), Buddhism/Taoism (43.2%), Islam (14%) and Hinduism (5%). Four main languages are spoken, with English the working language.

The country has not seen terrorist attacks in the age of al‑Qaeda and Islamic State (IS). But one of Singapore’s closest neighbours, Indonesia, has repeatedly been targeted by the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), al‑Qaeda’s principal offshoot in Southeast Asia, and other violent extremists. The most deadly incident in Indonesia was the Bali attacks of October 2002, which killed 202 individuals. Several other attacks in Indonesia through the decade were executed by the JI. Singapore itself has had close brushes with the group. The local JI cell’s plans to attack Mass Rapid Transit stations, government ministries and foreign embassies were interdicted by Singapore’s Internal Security Department (ISD) by the arrests of cell members in 2001 and 2002.

Since 2001, 94 individuals from the Muslim population in Singapore have been found to have been radicalised or involved in terrorism‑related activities at a level considered serious enough by the authorities to be placed under preventive detention, which is provided for under the Internal Security Act (ISA). Many have since been released, either after the lapse of a detention order (DO) or through the issuing of a ministerial direction suspending the detention (a suspension direction, or SD). Upon their release, ex‑detainees are typically for a time placed on restriction orders (RO), which restrict movements and impose other conditions, with the possibility of the individual again being detained if the conditions are not complied with or if there are signs of the individual being radicalised again. Others (mainly those judged to have been less involved in serious extremist activity or to pose less of a threat to society at large) were never detained but placed directly under ROs. Of those still in detention at the time of writing (July 2020), approximately six are individuals from the JI, while 16 are self‑radicalised individuals, mostly arrested in the 2010s, without formal affiliation to any extremist group (but with many showing sympathy for or declaring allegiance to IS).

Categories: Working Papers
Source: Deradicalisation in Singapore: Past, Present and Future
Citation: Shashi Jayakumar, Deradicalisation in Singapore: Past, Present and Future, The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) Report, King's College London, United Kingdom, 20 August 2020

Last updated on 21/08/2020

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Deradicalisation in Singapore: Past, Present and Future
According to some estimates, Singapore, a cosmopolitan city‑state, has the most diverse population on earth. Within its 721.5 square kilometres, the resident population ( ...
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