Security officials in Singapore informed on Wednesday that an 18-year-old ISIS terrorist named Muhammad Irfan Danyal bin Mohamad Nor was arrested in December for allegedly planning to carry out three targeted attacks in the island country.
According to media reports, the 18-year-old teenager was apprehended by Singapore Internal Security Department (ISD) a few days before he planned to take the ‘bai’ah’ (pledge of allegiance) to then-ISIS leader Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Quraishi. He has been detained under the Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial for up to two years.
Youth radicalised after watching Zakir Naik’s video: Singapore authorities
As per authorities, the teenager, who studied in Singapore, was a supporter of ISIS. He began getting radicalised in 2020 after viewing videos of Islamic preacher Zakir Naik and Islamic State group propaganda online. Besides watching many videos of the radical preacher Naik, Irfan also watched videos of other foreign extremist preachers such as Ahmed Deedat.
By late 2021, the teenager became completely radicalised and highly influenced by ISIS. He began photographing himself in a ski mask, index finger raised to illustrate the concept of ‘tawhid,’ in the style of ISIS terrorists he had seen online.
ISIS terrorist wanted to establish an Islamic caliphate in Singapore, was planning three terror attacks
Irfan wanted to live in an Islamic caliphate governed by Syariah (Islamic law) and establish an Islamic caliphate in Singapore. He also wanted to recruit Muslims to join the caliphate, so he started using social media to gather supporters to carry out terrorist attacks in Singapore.
Authorities confirmed that Muhammad Irfan Danyal Mohamad Nor planned to stab and kill ‘kaafirs’ (non-believers) and carry out a large-scale attack at Amoy Quee Camp by recruiting a suicide car bomber. He wanted to build a C4 explosive device to bomb the Keramat Habib Noh grave site at Haji Muhammad Salleh Mosque in Tanjong Pagar.
The teenager also intended to designate Coney Island as an ISIS wilayat (province) in the hope that it would be recognised by ISIS as an official affiliate.
On August 9, 2022, on Singapore’s National Day, he put up his designed flag on Coney Island, patterned on the flag of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham- the Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist organisation in Syria. He claimed this represented the beginning of his own caliphate, which he titled the “Islamic State of Singhafura,” and posted photographs of the flag on social media to encourage others to join, according to ISD.
“Irfan believed that it was his religious obligation to spread ISIS’ radical ideology. He planned to upload his video to various social media platforms to galvanise support for ISIS, and to recruit an ISIS army of between 100 and 500 fighters to assist him in conducting attacks in Singapore,” said ISD, adding that this led the 18-year-old to plan the three attacks in Singapore.
Minister for Home Affairs and Law K. Shanmugam said during a media conference at Masjid Khalid in Joo Chiat Road on Wednesday: “At the point of arrest, he was determined to commit violence. He is, in our assessment, likely to have carried out a knife attack at some point… We assessed him to be an imminent security threat. That is why he was arrested.”
Notably, this is the third such arrest in Singapore in the last two years. In 2020, authorities nabbed a 16-year-old who planned to attack two mosques in Singapore after being influenced by the New Zealand mosque massacre. The following year, officials detained a 20-year-old Singaporean Muslim under the same law, charging him with plotting a lethal stabbing rampage against Jews at a synagogue.
