SINGAPORE – Twenty years after the Harmony Centre was opened to counter misconceptions about Islam in the wake of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks, the challenges to Singapore’s cohesion have evolved.
But the fundamental task of building trust at the individual level remains the same and is as important as ever, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said at a gala dinner to mark the 20th anniversary of the interfaith hub, which is located in An-Nahdhah Mosque.
The threat posed by Islamist terrorism has not disappeared, he noted, as groups like ISIS continue to recruit supporters, spread propaganda and plot attacks around the world, with Singapore still seen as an attractive target.
At the same time, the radicalisation threat has become more complex. The city state is seeing more cases of self-radicalised individuals, many of them young and not all of them motivated by Islamist extremism, PM Wong said at the event at The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore.
For instance, one case involved a Protestant Christian youth who had planned to carry out attacks on mosques. There were also two young men who referred to themselves as “East Asian supremacists”, and another who identified as a white supremacist despite being of Chinese ethnicity.
These cases show that extremist influences are becoming more diverse, and that anyone, regardless of age, race, or religion, can be susceptible, said PM Wong.
Singapore must guard against people retreating into separate worlds and gradually losing their sense of connection with the wider community, he added.
Developments overseas can also strain cohesion at home, especially when questions of religion and identity become entwined with politics, he said, citing the conflict in Gaza and the wider Israeli-Palestinian issue.
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