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23 January 2002 1507 hrs (GMT)
2307 hrs (SST)
by Farah Abdul Rahim
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| Wong
Kan Seng |
Home Affairs Minister Wong
Kan Seng has described the Muslim group, Fateha, as radicals
but he says it is premature to talk about further action against
the group for now.
Fateha has been in the spotlight over the past
week after its head Zulfikar Mohamad Shariff claimed in an
interview with the BBC that Singapore's alignment with US
and Israel motivated the actions of 13 people detained for
terrorism related activities.
Its website Fateha.com has been on the Internet
for nearly 18 months.
Mr Wong said: "They've just been floating
in cyberspace, a small group of people and over time, if that
view is allowed to prevail, more Singaporeans may believe
there's some truth in it.
"Therefore the government had to draw this
out, let the public know that there's this particular group
- very radical in their views, confrontational in their approach."
When asked if it was a Catch 22 situation for
the government to take on Fateha publicly, Mr Wong agreed.
He said the Government's wider purpose in doing
so was to expose Fateha as the group is seen as a real threat
to Singapore's multi-racial and multi-religious harmony.
The Home Affairs Minister said: "They'll
divide the Malay community and also divide Singaporeans. Therefore
it's important to bring this out so that Singaporeans know
what sort of characters these people are and decide to debunk
them."
But Mr Wong points out that radical fringe groups
like Fateha belong to the minority.
The majority of Singaporeans, Muslims and non-Muslims,
support the government's action against the 13 detainees -
and condemned the actions of the Jemaah Islamiyah group.
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