Ex-freelance religious teacher and his student issued Restriction Orders under Internal Security Act

SINGAPORE — A former accredited freelance religious teacher who spread extremist ideas and his student who expressed support for terrorist groups have been placed on Restriction Orders under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Wednesday (Jan 16) that Murad Mohd Said, 46, taught his students that it was compulsory to kill apostates — broadly defined to include non-believers, Sufis, Shias and Muslims who have renounced Islam or disregarded texts and rulings from the Quran and Sunnah.

Murad was accredited under the Asatizah Recognition Scheme, but his accreditation was cancelled by the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) in May last year. Nonetheless, he continued to spread his segregationist views online, the MHA said in a statement.

Murad also preached that Muslims were allowed to defend themselves by waging armed jihad against “infidels who persecuted them”, and encouraged his students to withdraw from secular society and adhere to Syariah law rulings instead of secular laws.

“Murad’s binary ‘us vs 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,” the MHA said.

He was placed on an RO in December last year.

A person placed on an RO is not permitted to change their residence or employment, or travel out of Singapore, without the prior approval of the director of the Internal Security Department (ISD).

They cannot issue public statements, address public meetings or print, distribute and contribute to any publication. They also cannot hold office in, or be a member of any organisation, association or group without the prior approval of the ISD director.

The second man placed on an RO was Razali Abas, a 56-year-old technician who was introduced to Murad sometime in 2012 and began attending his classes.

Razali had turned to religion after becoming disillusioned with his lifestyle, the MHA said.

However, the “exclusivist religious teachings” he got from Murad’s classes made him susceptible to the “more radical and violent influences” he later encountered on social media, it added.

Over time, Razali began to seek out individuals with militant-looking profiles on Facebook, seeing them as “heroes” making sacrifices that he himself could not make. Their posts also reinforced his belief in armed violence, and his admiration and support for terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda, the MHA said.

He was arrested under the ISA in September last year, then placed on an RO in October.

Meanwhile, an RO against a former senior member of Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), Mohd Jauhari Abdullah, was allowed to lapse when it expired on Sept 14 last year, said the MHA.

Jauhari was detained in September 2002 in the second phase of the Singapore JI arrests and was released a decade later.