Authorities in Singapore have arrested a 22-year-old preschool teacher found to have shared Islamic State material online and planning to join the organization in Syria, the country’s Home Affairs Ministry said Monday.
Syaikhah Izzah Zahrah Al Ansari, who is also a mother of a young child, has now been detained without trial under the Singaporean Internal Security Act (ISA), just weeks before she planned to travel to Syria and marry an Islamic State jihadi.
“Izzah was intent on joining ISIS and was actively planning to make her way to Syria, with her young child,” the ministry said in a statement. “She supported ISIS’s use of violence to establish and defend its self-declared ‘caliphate’, and aspired to live in it.”
Al Ansari is believed to have become radicalized at the age of 18, having become interested in propaganda videos released by the terrorist group. She went on to develop a vast array of contacts in the Middle East, many of whom were ISIS militants.
“Several of her social media platforms were taken down by administrators because of the pro-ISIS content, but she created new ones,” the ministry said.
She is also the daughter of Quranic teachers, who were aware of her plans. Although they tried to stop her from fleeing the country, they also tried to destroy evidence when police opened investigations, in an attempt to “try to minimize her acts.”
Although Buddhism remains the most practiced religion in Singapore, the country’s Muslim population is estimated at 15 percent. Since 2015, Singaporean security services have arrested 14 Singaporean males on suspicion of links to the Islamic State.
However, Singapore’s closest neighbors, Malaysia and Indonesia, are majority Muslim populations and have also seen increasing levels of radicalization amongst their citizens. In 2016, as many as 170 alleged jihadists were detained in Indonesia, while last June, Malaysia was the subject of the first successful ISIS attack in its history.
Singapore has some of the toughest laws in the world, including the death penalty for murder and drug offenses, and corporal punishment for crimes such as vandalism and overstaying one’s visa. Unlike America, terror suspects can be detained solely on suspicion.
Officials have been on high alert in recent weeks following the Islamic State takeover of Marawi, the Philippines’ only Muslim majority city, as militants tore down statues and burnt the city’s cathedral.
A report published last week by the Ministry of Home Affairs concluded that the terror threat in Singapore “remains the highest in recent years.”
You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.
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