Singapore authorities check schools for militancy

Singapore authorities check schools for militancy

Agence France-Presse, Singapore

Singapore's Islamic religious authorities said on Monday they are building a list of international madrasahs that are believed to be safe to study at without the threat of militant indoctrination.

The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) said the list will be ready by March and follows the detention here of 37 accused religious militants over the past two years, many of whom are alleged to have studied overseas.

The Muis Student Resource and Development Secretariat said it is drawing up the list as part of a broader plan to monitor students who study abroad.

"We have what we call a pre-departure program where we hold a series of discussions and workshops," secretariat head Mohamad Hannan Hassan told NewsRadio 93.8.

"When they are abroad, we are not leaving them alone, we are still in contact with them through correspondence."

The secretariat already acts as a one-stop resource center for students to find information about overseas Islamic institutions and the countries in which they are located.

Media reports said on Monday many parents have been asking mosques and Muis for advice over choosing an overseas madrasah amid fears they might unwittingly enrol their children in schools that have links to terrorists.

Singapore authorities have warned repeatedly that regional terrorist group Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) is using overseas madrasahs to recruit young Muslims.

It has singled out the Jamaah Islamiyah of indoctrinating Muslims in Indonesia, as well as various madrasahs in neighboring Malaysia.

Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng said last month authorities had arrested two Singaporeans, aged 20 and 21, who had been trained at the Ulu Tiram madrasah in Malaysia from as young as 12.

Wong said the pair were being groomed to lead JI and "quite a few" other members of the organization now in detention in Singapore had previously studied at the Ulu Tiram madrasah.

Singaporean Muslims who wish to further their Islamic education have to go abroad, as Singapore only offers Islamic education up to the pre-university level.

Muslims are a minority in predominantly ethnic-Chinese populated Singapore, a tiny Southeast Asian island-state that counts Islamic Indonesia and Malaysia as neighbors.