Though many hold the belief that it’s about time Zulfikar Sharif got detained under the Internal Security Act for his inclinations towards radical Islam, his family has come out to refute the sentiments.
Zulfikar Mohamad Shariff was nabbed last month for terrorism-related activities and has been served with an Order of Detention for a period of two years. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the 44-year-old Singaporean became influenced by jihadi-related material in 2001, and started using social media to influence his followers to take up arms and establish an Islamic caliphate instead of accepting secular democratic systems. He was said to have been an ISIS sympathizer who promoted violence.
His family, however, denied all of it. “Anyone who knows him personally would know that he is argumentative but not a violent man, and does not condone violence,” they wrote in a lengthy statement against the allegations. They affirmed that the Ministry of Home Affair’s concerns were based on Zulfikar’s postings in 2013 and 2014, and that his positions on many issues had changed since then.
Some highlights of their statement:
On Zulfikar’s support of the Islamic State:
“On 28th June 2014, Zulfikar had published comments regarding ISIS in Iraq and Syria, when there were news releases of a reestablishment of the Islamic Caliphate. The news was greeted with excitement by a number of Muslims, as the Islamic Caliphate is meant to be a central Muslim leadership in the matters of the religious law, and being the Muslim equivalent to the Roman Catholic papacy.
When the first global media reports of violence and beheadings by ISIS began in late July 2014 and the agendas of the ISIS fighters had seemed to differ from the peaceful perspective, Zulfikar took a different stance. He had been against their violent nature and ideology.”
On Zulfikar’s intention to establish an Islamic Caliphate in Singapore:
“It was never his intention to establish the Caliphate system in Singapore or use violence to achieve such an objective.
The stance on the reestablishment of the worldwide Islamic Caliphate is based on Muslim unity for religious adherence in creed.
Zulfikar had, on numerous occasions, stressed on the importance of the political unity of Muslims. It was not a violent idea, neither does it condone terrorism.”
On that viral photo of him and his family in front of the Islamic State-like flag:
“The banner, which had been maliciously and falsely identified as an ISIS flag, is actually a banner which has been used throughout Islamic history, as the basis of Islamic creed to represent Islam, which states the Shahadah, or professing the recognition of God and the Prophet.
The banner in the photo was purchased to show solidarity towards the oppression of the Palestinians, which had been mentioned by Zulfikar in that post. It was never referred to as a support for ISIS or any other known terrorist organisations, besides being exaggerated by the Singapore media.”
On Zulfikar’s Facebook page not being accessible to the public:
“Zulfikar’s Facebook account had been removed while he was in detention, while media reports and commentators continue to falsely portray him as an extremist and as an ISIS sympathiser, without his FB page content being currently accessible to show the true nature of the posts.”
On Zulfikar’s opposition against government policies:
“While Zulfikar has always been known to oppose the Singapore Government policies, his postings were written from a perspective of someone who argued and rationalised his opposition to the PAP government’s policies vis-à-vis the Malay/Muslim community.”
Assuring the public that Zulfikar is a loving man, they stated that his detention was doing “irreparable harm” to his family, and that having him detained without trial or the opportunity to challenge the allegations was unjustified.
“We fear that the detention of Zulfikar also increases the chances of self-incrimination through ‘confessions’ and ‘admissions’.”
