A popular preacher’s followers took their complaints to top officials after he was refused entry.
The social media accounts of President Halimah Yacob, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and other ministers were spammed yesterday by supporters of Indonesian preacher Abdul Somad Batubara, who was turned away earlier this week due to his extremist teachings.
This was confirmed by the Ministry of Communications and Information last night. They said Indonesian chat groups had called for cyberattacks on the Singapore government accounts.
Indonesian preacher Abdul Somad refused entry to Singapore
Affected accounts included those of President Halimah Yacob, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, as well as the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, and Singapore Tourism Board.
They flooded the comments with hashtags like #SaveUAS and #SaveUstadzAbdulSomad and hostile reactions to barring Somad and six others who arrived at the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal on Monday and were sent back to Batam the same day.
However, such comments could no longer be found Thursday morning. Some supporters have called them out for deleting comments.
The Ministry of Home Affairs said on Tuesday that Somad’s “extremist and segregationist” teachings are “unacceptable in Singapore’s multi-racial and multi-religious society.”
“While Somad had attempted to enter Singapore ostensibly for a social visit, the Singapore Government takes a serious view of any persons who advocate violence and/or espouse extremist and segregationist teachings,” the ministry said.
Somad gained popularity for his controversial views, including suggesting that chess was forbidden for Muslims, and saying that the Christian cross contained “infidel genies,” or supernatural demons.
On Monday, he posted a clip of him being confined in a “jail-like” immigration detention room and insisted he was “deported” though Indonesia’s ambassador to Singapore denied it.
“Singapura” is still trending on Indonesian Twitter and has been since Monday. It contained mostly tweets condemning Singapore.
“[Ustadz Abdul Somad] is a dignified Indonesian, an ulema and an intellectual. This incident is an insult. It’s very inappropriate for Singapore to treat UAS like that, including ‘deporting’ him for no reason. The Indonesian embassy in Singapore must seek clarification for this incident,” Fadli Zon, an opposition politician, wrote Tuesday.
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