Singapore has moved against two citizens under its Internal Security Act following radicalisation connected to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with authorities warning of increasingly complex and hybrid extremist ideologies taking root among young people in the city-state. The Internal Security Department announced the orders on Wednesday, bringing to eight the number of individuals detained or restricted under the ISA whose radicalisation traces directly to fallout from Hamas' October 2023 attacks against Israel.
Cyrus Dzulqarnain Al-Shahriar, a 19-year-old student, received a restriction order after authorities identified him as subscribing to what security officials term "Composite Violent Extremism" — a patchwork approach to radical ideology where adherents cherry-pick from multiple, sometimes contradictory extremist worldviews to construct a personalised belief system justifying violence. A member of the public had flagged his online postings, which included antisemitic content and pro-Hamas material, leading to his identification and subsequent action by the department.
The second case involves Tarmizi Mohd Taha, 30, a customer service officer who received a detention order. Officials revealed that Tarmizi had expressed willingness to execute attacks within Singapore if directed by Hamas, and had sought to leverage his former experience as a logistics assistant during National Service in the Singapore Police Force to support the organisation. His stated belief was that such service would facilitate his path to martyrdom, demonstrating how some radicalised individuals attempt to weaponise their professional skills and access for extremist purposes.
Cyrus' trajectory into extremism began innocently enough when he joined online religious discussion groups in 2022 to deepen his understanding of Islam. However, his digital journey gradually exposed him to increasingly extreme content — initially anti-Western and anti-LGBTQ material that prompted him to post inflammatory content inciting violence against LGBTQ communities. The trajectory mirrors patterns seen across Southeast Asia and globally, where young people seeking religious education encounter radicalising narratives within the same online spaces.
Following the October 2023 Hamas attacks, Cyrus encountered pro-Hamas messaging that resonated with him, leading him to characterise civilian deaths as legitimate expressions of jihad. By 2024, he had contemplated travelling to Gaza to join the militant group, a plan he abandoned only due to practical constraints — lack of travel funds and personal fear of physical confrontation — rather than ideological recalibration. This distinction matters to security analysts, as it suggests his commitment remained theoretical rather than tested against reality.
The case took a more alarming turn in early 2025 when Cyrus discovered an online niche extremist community espousing "violent accelerationist" ideology, a framework predicated on the belief that deliberate chaos and violence can collapse existing global structures and facilitate the rise of an Islamic-dominated world order. Within this worldview, Western democracies including Singapore are perceived as extensions of American imperial power operating under Zionist control — a conspiratorial narrative that has circulated within extremist circles for decades but continues to attract adherents.
After joining the group's encrypted chat platform, Cyrus began publicly glorifying historical terrorist attacks including al-Qaeda's September 11 attacks and the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed over 200 people — a region-specific atrocity that carries particular resonance for Southeast Asians. He participated in the group's "digital jihad" campaign, which involved targeting critics of Islam online with harassment, disinformation, and violent rhetoric. Notably, he was directed to photograph materials with Marina Bay Sands as backdrop, suggesting the group sought to document local commitment and ties to Singapore specifically.
A particularly concerning development in Cyrus' case was his convergence with incel ideology — the subculture of self-identified involuntarily celibate men who harbour deep resentment toward women and society. After encountering online material about Elliot Rodger, the 22-year-old who carried out a deadly attack near the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2014 that killed six and injured fourteen, Cyrus began identifying with incel grievances. He posted threats of sexual violence against women and fantasised about executing mass violence in school settings targeting LGBTQ individuals and couples, using dehumanising language such as "foid" (female humanoid).
The merger of Islamist extremism with incel ideology in a single individual represents what security experts describe as Composite Violent Extremism — a phenomenon that defies traditional categorisation and complicates prevention efforts. Unlike adherents of coherent ideological systems, individuals like Cyrus assemble personalised extremist worldviews from disparate sources, creating unpredictable threat profiles that may not conform to established prevention frameworks. The Internal Security Department assessed that while Cyrus did not advance beyond the ideation stage and did not share his violent thoughts with family or school contacts, his public expression of support for terrorist organisations and incitement to violence against specific groups constituted sufficient security concern to warrant intervention.
Tarmizi's case, though seemingly more straightforward in its focus on Hamas support, underscores a different vulnerability: the exploitation of professional skills and institutional access. His background in logistics during Police Force National Service had given him training potentially applicable to supply chains, movement, and coordination — assets that extremist organisations find valuable. The willingness he expressed to act on behalf of Hamas in exchange for religious validation demonstrates how some individuals weaponise their position within state institutions to serve external militant causes.
The concentration of eight ISA cases traceable to the Gaza conflict within a relatively short timeframe has prompted Singapore's security establishment to reframe its understanding of the contemporary extremist threat landscape. Rather than confronting isolated individuals radicalised by single ideological narratives, authorities increasingly encounter young people synthesising multiple extremist frameworks — Palestinian nationalism, violent Islamism, anti-Western rhetoric, anti-Zionism, and increasingly, incel-inspired misogyny — into hybrid belief systems. This diversity of sources makes prevention and rehabilitation more complex, as traditional counter-messaging targeting a specific ideology may prove ineffective against individuals drawing justification from multiple, compartmentalised worldviews.
Both individuals will undergo rehabilitation programming designed to address their radical beliefs, though the case files suggest the work will be substantial. Cyrus' young age and his heavy immersion in online extremist ecosystems present particular challenges, as does the fact that his radicalisation progressed rapidly through multiple ideological frameworks within just three years. The case has broader implications for Malaysia and other Southeast Asian nations grappling with similar phenomena, particularly as Gaza-related tensions continue to fuel online extremism and as hybrid ideological movements gain traction among digitally native youth seeking frameworks to express grievance and alienation.
