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SINGAPORE \u2013 Acting Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Zaqy Mohamad has instructed the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) to further review its safeguards following a child sexual abuse case in which some of the interactions took place at a mosque.<\/p>\n
On Aug 17, a 37-year-old self-styled \u201creligious influencer\u201d was sentenced to 27 years and 10 months\u2019 jail and 24 strokes of the cane for sexually abusing two young boys<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n He had repeatedly raped the younger brother, who was then between six and eight years old, at various locations, including in a toilet at the mosque where they often prayed together.<\/p>\n He later directed his attention to the older boy, who was 11 to 12 years old, and molested him on several occasions.<\/p>\n The man had become a father figure to the two brothers because their parents were absent from their lives.<\/p>\n Aside from sexual offences against the two boys, he also molested three other victims, including a 17-year-old boy who had treated him as a \u201cbig brother\u201d and religious mentor.<\/p>\n In a Facebook post on Aug 18, Zaqy said MUIS is working closely with relevant organisations to ensure the family receives the care and support they need.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are deeply disturbed by the sexual offences committed against children, as reported yesterday. Our thoughts are first and foremost with them and their family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happened should never have happened. Not to any child. Not anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that the mosque is where Muslims pray, children learn about their faith and families gather, and should be a place where they feel safe.<\/p>\n \u201cSo when that trust is abused, especially involving our children, it hurts us deeply as a community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Zaqy said that while the offender was not a mosque staff member, volunteer or an accredited religious teacher under the Asatizah Recognition Scheme, some of the interactions took place at a mosque.<\/p>\n Hence, difficult questions have to be asked, he said, adding that he has been discussing this closely with MUIS and mosque leaders.<\/p>\n While MUIS has announced measures to strengthen security, including patrols and CCTV monitoring, Zaqy said he has asked the body to review its safeguards further.<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot leave it at that. We are reviewing our safeguards and strengthening security measures, particularly around informal activities and gatherings involving children and youths,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Zaqy also urged parents and caregivers to stay close to their children and know who they are interacting with, online and offline.<\/p>\n \u201cWe should not let our guard down simply because someone appears religious or speaks with authority about religion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE \u2013 Acting Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Zaqy Mohamad has instructed the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) to further review its safeguards following a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/77513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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