Singapore: The teenager, who was not named, is the youngest person to be dealt with under the ISA for terrorism-related activities, the Internal Security Department (ISD) said in a media release on Wednesday.The ISD stated that the teen was influenced by the 2019 terror attacks at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in which 51 people were killed.
A 16-year-old Singaporean boy, a Protestant Christian of Indian ethnicity, was detained last month under the Internal Security Act (ISA) after planning to use a machete to attack Muslims at two mosques in March, on the anniversary of New Zealand’s Christchurch attacks.
The teenager, who was not named, is the youngest person to be dealt with under the ISA for terrorism-related activities, the Internal Security Department (ISD) said in a media release on Wednesday.
He is the first detainee in the city-state to be inspired by far-right extremist ideology, the Channel News Asia reported, citing the ISD release.
The ISD stated that the teen was influenced by the 2019 terror attacks at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in which 51 people were killed.
The teen had planned to carry out his attacks on March 15 this year, on the anniversary of the Christchurch attacks.
“He was self-radicalised, motivated by a strong antipathy towards Islam and a fascination with violence,” the ISD said.
He watched the livestream video of the terrorist attack on the two mosques in Christchurch on March 15, 2019, and read the manifesto of the attacker, Brenton Tarrant, a white supremacist, it said.
“He had also watched Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) propaganda videos, and came to the erroneous conclusion that ISIS represented Islam, and that Islam called on its followers to kill non-believers,” it said.
Before the attack in March 2019, Tarrant, an Australian, had put up online posts that contained anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and Right Wing extremist views. He had mounted a camera on his head, and live-streamed the attack. He received a life sentence in August 2020.
