Who is Zulfikar Mohamad Shariff, the ex-ISA detainee stirring racial tensions online?
Police have ordered TikTok and Meta to restrict and disable social media accounts belonging to former Singaporean Zulfikar Mohamad Shariff, said the Ministry of Home Affairs on Nov 26.
The 54-year-old Australian has been posting content that fuels racial and religious tensions in Singapore.
The Straits Times reported that he has been making such posts from Australia, where he resettled with his family in 2002 and had held dual citizenship.
Which posts triggered the action?
Among his recent posts is a TikTok video from June 19, in which he falsely claimed that Malay Muslims were being forced to abandon Islam and assimilate into the Chinese community in Singapore.
A separate video posted on Facebook on July 18 claimed that the Chinese in Singapore were colonial settlers, not migrants, and said the nation's ideology had insulted, degraded, and oppressed Malays.
Under the Online Criminal Harms Act (OCHA), the TikTok account and Facebook page will be disabled. However, the directions do not cover X, formerly Twitter, where Zulfikar continues to post similar content.
Who is Zulfikar Mohamad Shariff?
Zulfikar Mohamad Shariff had been known for actively spreading radical ideology online, including promoting terrorism and glorifying the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
He was arrested in Singapore by the Internal Security Department (ISD) when he returned from Australia and has been detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) since July 2016, according to a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) press release issued that year.
MHA said that as early as 2001, Zulfikar began showing signs of radicalisation after consuming hardline materials.
He expressed support for extremist groups such as Al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah, and advocated that Muslims take up arms in Afghanistan following the Sept 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States.
He later made headlines in 2002 for challenging mainstream Muslim leaders and pushing for primary school girls to be allowed to wear the headscarf in schools.
That same year, Zulfikar — who held dual citizenship for Singapore and Australia — relocated to Australia with his wife and three children.
He also joined Hizbut Tahrir, a global Islamist organisation banned in several Arab and Central Asian countries for advocating the establishment of its version of a strict caliphate based on Islamic law, and maintained contact with radical preachers.
What was Al-Makhazin and why did he create it?
In 2013, Zulfikar created an online group called Al-Makhazin — Arabic for "the magazine" — and built up a following. He used Facebook to set up platforms purportedly to counter Western media.
His true aim, however, was to stir up tensions on Muslim issues and propagate his radical ideology.
The Ministry said that Zulfikar had admitted his ulterior motive for setting up the Facebook group — using it to "agitate on Muslim issues in Singapore and attack some Singaporean Muslims who did not share his views".
"His real agenda was in fact to provoke Muslims in Singapore into pushing for the replacement of the democratic system with an Islamic state in Singapore," it added.
Zulfikar also said he concealed his ulterior motive from the Singaporean members of Al-Makhazin.
Who did he influence?
The two Singaporeans he radicalised are security guard Muhammad Shamin Mohamed Sidek, now 38, who was detained in July 2015; and businessman Mohamad Saiddhin Abdullah, now 42, who was placed under a Restriction Order in July 2016 that limits his movements.
What happened when he returned to Singapore?
Since resettling in Australia in 2002, Zulfikar had acquired Australian citizenship and lived there for 14 years, making several trips back to Singapore between 2002 and 2014.
He also received state grants and unemployment benefits in Australia, according to MHA.
Upon returning to Singapore on July 1, 2016, Zulfikar was arrested for terrorism-related activities.
During investigations by ISD and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA), he confessed to entering Singapore using his Singapore passport while withholding information about his Australian citizenship.
He further admitted to falsely declaring to the ICA in 2013, when renewing his Singapore passport, that he did not hold citizenship of another country, as he did not wish to relinquish either citizenship.
Because of his false declaration to ICA in 2013, he was charged on Oct 8, 2020 under the Passports Act for making a false statement in connection with his Singapore passport renewal application.
Zulfikar has since renounced his Singapore citizenship, which ceased as of Aug 26, 2020.
