Two Singaporean teenagers were dealt with under the Internal Security Act (ISA), the Internal Security Department (ISD) announced on April 2, 2025.
A 17-year-old boy received a detention order after planning attacks on mosques in Singapore. A 15-year-old girl was given a restriction order in February for supporting the Islamic State (ISIS).
The 17-year-old boy had selected five mosques as targets in June 2024: Masjid Maarof in Jurong West, Masjid Jamek Queenstown in Margaret Drive, Masjid Darussalam in Clementi, Masjid An-Nur in Admiralty Road and Masjid Hajjah Fatimah in Beach Road.
His path to extremism started in 2022 when he found Islamophobic content online. This content, along with his existing racist views against Malays, led to his hatred of Islam and Muslims.
He called himself an “East Asian supremacist” who believed Han Chinese, Korean and Japanese ethnicities were superior to Malays and Indians.
In November 2023, he watched the Christchurch shooting video on social media and researched the shooter, Brenton Tarrant. The teen felt satisfied watching Muslims being shot and viewed Tarrant as a hero.
After reading online manifestos by Tarrant and other far-right terrorists, he became convinced the “Great Replacement” theory was happening in Singapore. This theory claims that certain populations are being replaced by others through migration.
By early 2024, he wanted to copy Tarrant and shoot Muslims at mosques with an AK-47 assault rifle.
He planned to attack people leaving Friday prayers, with the goal of killing at least 100 Muslims – more than Tarrant’s attack in New Zealand that killed 51 people.
Between February and June 2024, the youth made several failed attempts to obtain a gun.
He contacted a US-based person claiming to be a gun maker, asked about buying a Glock 19 pistol from a foreign contact, inquired about purchasing a replica pistol to modify, and thought about smuggling weapons from Malaysia or Thailand.
He also planned to livestream his attacks like Tarrant did, hoping to inspire other Singaporeans to commit similar acts of violence. The teen intended to kill himself before police arrived.
When arrested, he admitted he would have carried out his plans if he had gotten a gun.
His parents knew about his hatred toward Muslims and his excessive time online. His father had shown him news reports of previous far-right extremist cases under the ISA to change his mindset, but they did not alert authorities.
The 15-year-old girl is the first female teen and second-youngest person to be dealt with under the ISA. She received a restriction order in February after becoming radicalised by ISIS propaganda online.
Her radicalisation happened quickly, in just weeks. After seeing ISIS propaganda in June 2023, she believed the group was a legitimate religious army defending Muslims in Iraq and Syria.
She took a virtual pledge of allegiance to an ISIS chatbot in July 2023, pledging to former caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and considered herself an ISIS member afterward.
The teen wanted to support ISIS by marrying a fighter in Syria and raising sons who would become fighters.
Between September 2023 and April 2024, she searched for flights from Singapore to Syria three times and planned to save money for the trip.
She had at least eight short-term online relationships with overseas-based ISIS supporters between July 2023 and December 2024, including an alleged fighter in Syria.
While her main goal was to marry an ISIS fighter and start a family, she was also willing to fight in Syria herself.
Her mother knew she was exposed to pro-ISIS materials and advised against it but did not think more intervention was needed.
The girl actively reposted extremist materials online and shared content with some classmates, though none took the materials seriously or reported them to teachers.
ISD investigations show she acted alone and did not successfully radicalise her schoolmates.
Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam spoke to media at Masjid Maarof on April 2, expressing concern about the trend of self-radicalised youth.
“I think we all need to be worried because… if Muslims get attacked, it’s bad for the Muslim community, but it’s bad for Singapore – because we are one community,” he said.
Since 2015, ISD has dealt with 17 people aged 20 and below under the ISA. All were self-radicalised online, and nine had planned attacks in Singapore.
The 17-year-old is the fourth young Singaporean dealt with under the ISA since December 2020 for far-right extremist ideologies. Tarrant’s online manifesto had influenced all four.
Mr Shanmugam noted there are likely other radicalised individuals in Singapore who may be consuming extremist content and planning attacks.
“We have to get it right every time. Those who are either on the far right or with tendencies towards extremism on the Islamic side have to only get it right once, and they will kill some people,” he warned.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim stressed the need for early reporting of radicalisation signs to maintain community harmony.
Speaking in Malay, Assoc Prof Faishal said Singaporeans should consider themselves lucky that ISD managed to step in for both cases despite the lack of reporting.
Anyone who knows or suspects someone has been radicalised can call the ISD Counter-Terrorism Centre hotline at 1800-2626-473.
