Singapore has prohibited the entry of Indonesian preacher Ustaz Abdul Somad on grounds of his "extremist and segregationist teachings." Somad aka UAS arrived in Singapore with his family and relatives on Monday and after an hour of interrogation by Singaporean immigration authorities he was sent back to Indonesia on the same day.
Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs released a statement soon after Somad was deported back to his country, citing reasons for banning him from entering Singapore. His extremist and segregationist teachings are, "unacceptable in Singapore's multi-racial and multi-religious society," the ministry said, according to CNA.
"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 MHA officially stated.
According to Tempo.co, in an interview uploaded on "Hai Guys Official" YouTube channel, Somad, 45, explained that he was brought in a 'detention room' and told to wait for over three hours for no apparent reason. He also questioned the Singaporean Ambassador to Indonesia on the reason why he and his family were asked to return to their country when they had come for a vacation and they possessed all documents required for the entry.
"They need to explain to our community, why did your country, your government reject us, why did your government deport us. Why? Because of terrorism, ISIS, narcotics?" he asked.
Indonesia's top Muslim clerical body, the Ulema Council, was enraged by this incident, "What is it with Singapore? Did he ever hurt Singapore? I don't think so," Sudarnoto Abdul Hakim, a council official, told CNN Indonesia.
With a large online following in the world's biggest Muslim-majority country, Somad posted a picture of himself before leaving Singapore in a room with a caged top that he equated to a "prison".
Somad's followers spammed Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, President Halimah Yaacob, Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan along with several government agencies with hashtags #SaveUAS and #SaveUstadzAbdulSomad for the unfair treatment subjected towards him, South China Morning Post reported.
The MHA explained further in the statement, making their stance clear on Somad's return to Indonesia, that he has previously on many occasions proclaimed that suicide bombings are permissible in cases on the Israel-Palestine conflict often marking it as "martyrdom" operations.
"He has also made comments denigrating members of other faith communities, such as Christians, by describing the Christian crucifix as the dwelling place of an 'infidel jinn (spirit/demon)'," said MHA. Apart from this he has publicly spoken ill of non-Muslim communities referring to them as kafir or infidels.
The Indonesian embassy in Singapore has reached out to the city-state's foreign ministry via a diplomatic note inquiring for more details of the incident and is currently awaiting a response.
