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Attack on madrasah students: Suspect’s family apologises to Muslim community

SINGAPORE - The family of a 48-year-old man arrested for assaulting three madrasah students has apologised to the Malay-Muslim community.

SINGAPORE — The family of a 48-year-old man arrested for assaulting three madrasah students last Friday morning has apologised to the Malay-Muslim community.

Mr Koh Weng Onn, who is single, and works odd jobs, was nabbed by the police on Saturday (April 2). On Sunday, his older brother, Mr Muhammad Johan Koh, contacted TODAY to discuss the alleged attack, and to apologise.

Saying his younger brother has been suffering from mental issues since young and was admitted to the Institute of Mental Health in the 1990s but refused treatment, the elder Mr Koh said: “We were always afraid that something like this would happen one day.”

The 49-year-old relief security guard, who is a Muslim convert, added: “After all that has happened, this is our way of apologising to the Malay-Muslim community.”

The police said the three female madrasah students, aged 14 to 16, were separately attacked near Paya Lebar MRT Station on Friday morning while they were on their ways to the nearby Madrasah Al Maarif Al Islamiah. In a statement last night, the police said the suspect will be charged in court on Monday with committing a rash act and voluntarily causing hurt.

On Sunday, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Chan Chun Sing said that any attack on any student will not be condoned, adding that he was encouraged that the religious leaders he spoke to did not jump to conclusions after the incident.

Speaking to the media after his ministerial community visit in Geylang Serai on Sunday, Mr Chan said: “Any attack on any student in Singapore is wrong. And definitely, you don’t attack people in Singapore in that manner, and definitely you don’t attack people because of race, language or religion. We don’t condone this.”

Mr Chan also said he was glad that the religious leaders from the mosque, temples and clan associations he had met in a closed-door session at Khadijah Mosque earlier in the day had discussed the issue “very openly”.

“The very encouraging thing is that while the investigations are ongoing, we (didn’t) jump to any conclusions, none of the leaders there jumped to any conclusions that this is motivated by any particular reason,” he said. “It shows a certain level of maturity that we can be very proud of as fellow Singaporeans — that we don’t always react to things and try to cast a race, language or religion angle to it unnecessarily.”

Meanwhile, Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam said in a Facebook post on Sunday that he had been asked by people whether the attack had anything to do with Islamophobic.

Advising the public not to jump to any conclusions for now, he said: “In this case, we do not know the detailed facts, the motives, and should wait for the investigations to be completed. We should avoid speculation on the motives.”

In a Facebook post on the incident, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore said on Sunday it was saddened to hear of the attack. “Any sort of violence against anyone is not to be condoned and much less if it stems from racial or religious sentiment. Aggression against anyone for their religious persuasion or ethnicity should never be allowed to take root in a multiracial and multireligious society like Singapore.”

Various ministers have also commented on the incident following the man’s arrest on Saturday. Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said on Saturday that Singapore as a society “should stand together against all forms of violence against innocent persons, especially if there may be racial or religious undertones”.

Environment and Water Resources Minister Masagos Zulkifli added he was glad that Singaporeans remained calm in the face of the incident and urged Singaporeans not to let anyone take advantage of such incidents to “incite hatred and division while it’s being settled by the authorities”.

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