Saving the young from terror’s lure

While stringent laws are required to deal with the menace of terrorism, it is clear that detention kicks in only after a person has become radicalised. The aim should be to strengthen an ecosystem which would prevent that radicalisation in the first place. In other words, an ecosystem that consists of a Singapore community – be it a particular religious group and its leaders, or parents and the larger family, or teachers and friends – must come together to insulate impressionable minds from the nefarious propaganda spread on international social media, which is impossible to regulate.

To stay safe, Singapore banks on its no-nonsense laws and its security agencies staying alert to the lurking antisocial undercurrents that draw on twisted interpretations of religion to justify violence. The young are not the only vulnerable group, but their exposure to extremism must worry all those concerned with the ultimate direction of Singapore society. That point has been underlined by the revelation that nine people under the age of 21 have been dealt with under the Internal Security Act since 2015, with six of them detained and three handed restriction orders. These numbers were made public following the announcement that an 18-year-old student had been detained after making plans to take part in armed violence in Singapore and abroad in support of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.