A 17-year-old boy’s scheme to shoot up mosques in Singapore was thwarted by Singapore’s Internal Security Department (ISD), after he was detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) in December 2024.
According to a report by The Straits Times, the teenager was apparently inspired by the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand in March 2019, where 51 Muslims were murdered.
He, on the other hand, allegedly had the intention of doubling the body count of that event, aiming to kill at least 100 Muslims. He had also identified 5 mosques in Singapore as potential targets for his plan.
The 5 mosques are located in Jurong West, Clementi, Margaret Drive, Admiralty Road, and Beach Road.
The Singapore authorities had identified the teenager during their investigation into another suspect, an 18-year-old Singaporean citizen named Nick Lee, who was also detained in December 2024.
Nick Lee and the 17-year-old suspect have apparently shared disturbing materials, which carried Islamophobic and far-right extremist sentiments, with each other online.
However, the 2 have never met in person and were not aware of each other’s plan to carry out attacks in Singapore.
Obsessed with the Christchurch mosque shootings, he tried to obtain a gun
The teenager apparently watched videos of the Christchurch mosque shootings online and felt satisfaction over seeing Muslims being shot. He looked into the shooter, Brenton Tarrant, considering him a hero and wishing there were people like Tarrant in Singapore.
He then made his plan and made several attempts to purchase a gun.
This image is for illustration purposes only.
In early 2024, he was in contact with an apparent gun maker based in the US, who told the teenager that it would be hard to smuggle a gun into Singapore and suggested he try 3D printing instead.
The teenager did not pursue this due to costs and technical issues.
He then tried several other methods and even considered buying guns and ammunition in Malaysia or Thailand, and smuggling them into Singapore himself.
Thankfully, none of this worked out for him.
His parents knew to a certain extent
While he never shared his plan with anyone as he feared the authorities finding out, his parents knew of his hatred towards Muslims and even tried to encourage him to change his mindset by sharing news reports on far-right extremist cases handled by the Singaporean authorities.
However, they never contacted the authorities about their son’s behaviour.
Despite wanting to attack all 5 target locations, he planned to kill himself after shooting up Masjid Maarof on Jurong West, in hopes that other people who shared his sentiments would attack the other mosques.
Thankfully, the authorities managed to detain him before he could carry out his plans.
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