Governmnent's Homeland Security Measures

[AquaRa]

"The consistent security checks on commuters using Singapore’s land transport system are unnecessary and instead of making Singaporeans more aware of the terror crisis, has backfired and made other races more wary of anyone who is associated to Islam." - my thesis

In other words, people, while understanding the current situation, have also become more wary of 'suspicious' Islamic characters. Therefore, the line between extremists and Islam has been blurred. The view of Singaporeans may have changed after the terror attacks.

1)Has it achieved its aims of preventing threats to national security from developing in the first instance or does these checks merely serve to divide the community?

2) Are the checks on suspicious characters biased against Malays?

Someone please clarify my doubts and state your personal experiences. Are these checks really neccesary? Or do they serve as a basis for people to look at Islam with another point of view?

*no intention of offending anyone*

[milky]

frm my point of view... tis past years terrorist attacks mostly were created by islamic people.. therefore police and other government staffs will thinks tat terrorist attack will only create by islamic people or muslims... so they check on those people..

but frm i tink.. terrorist attack can make by anyone.. so police will haf to check anyone who is suspicious... not only check muslims who are suspicious..

and somemore other races will keep on thinking tat malays or muslims are up to no good.. as a result people will gif sarcastic remarks..

for me i tink tat all my muslims frenz are friendly... not all islamic people are up to no good... different teaching by different religious teacher will hav the effect on the student.. some are good and some are bad..

no offending or flaming intended.. juz my point of view

[Achilles Tang]

We should speak clearly on this issue as it is a sensitive one where religion is involved.

The facts are:

1. Most of the terror activities in the past decade are done by extremists.

2. Sadly, most of them have misused religion as the basis of their actions. For the majority, Islam has been the religion of these extremists.

3. Depending on locality, this religion is practised by a few distinct races. Sometimes, terror activities happens in countries where the victims are of the same race/religion.

Singapore being a multi-racial country with clear religions practiced by certain races would naturally be keeping tabs on extremists from the religion in question (which would mean only an entire race would be under scrutiny).

Realistically, to paint a whole entire race with the same brush would be stupid. There always a few rotten apples which spoil the whole barrel. There are christian extremists, Hindu extremists, buddhist extremists and anything that can be abused... will be abused. In the past, there is communism, nazism and other ideologies which were also subjected to a lot of public scrutiny and suspicion.

Recently, a Muslim leader has issued a fatwa against Osama and his Al-Qaida (pardon any misspellings) for abusing Islam as a justification for their terror activities.

It is a clear enough signal that it is not a race issue but an extremist issue who do not respect race, religion or precious lives in their quest to be heard, feared or to achieve fame or immortality.

Take it easy... this inconvenience can fall on any other race, religion or association IF extremist groups from the same race, religion or association are causing such upsets in the general peace.

[AquaRa]

since past terror attacks have mostly been committed by muslim extremists, i feel that a single whole community of muslims will be scrutinised, no matter they are innocent or not. So by imposing tough security checks on people, bringing inconveniences and trying to cultivate a sense of awareness in singaporeans, does this, instead make us more wary of the muslim race? which i think, is pretty unfair to innocent muslims. so am i right to say that the terror attacks have caused us to view one another in another way.

[Achilles Tang]

The small-minded will.

The rest of us will still work, live and play with our malay bros, eating roti prata, drinking teh tarik, go fishing, watching soccer and scolding 'referee kayu!!' as usual!

One of my best friends is malay and I truly enjoy his company. We even joke about hunting down Osama down and retiring as millionaires...haha!

[Archilles19]

A year or so...back...someone I know...lets call him SH......SH with his gf were at a bus station behind Suntec City waiting for a bus to return to Tampines. Seated, he saw a chinese guy about his age walking past him giving a sarcastic smile. This chinese guy keep pacing past them, giving the same smile plus snigger everytime he past them.

Feeling uneasy & thinking maybe he's an old friend, SH stop him & ask what was wrong. He insisted it was nothing but SH insist on knowing why he did that.

What he told SH angers everybody that I relate this story to, especially Malays. He said that "You Malays are a problem in Singapore".

SH replied with a few blows to his face until he bled. A few people at the bus stop shouted for them to stop but SH just continued. He only stop when the guy miracally managed to catch his hand & twisting it, making SH loose his balance. The chinese guy didn't manage to lay even a single blow on SH.

After a few stern warning from SH & he left the guy slump on the railings & SH caught the next bus that arrives.

No police report was made by either parties. SH was still in the SPF serving his NS at that time.

The last time SH saw the chinese guy was while SH was taking the reservist detail for shooting lesson & that chinese guy is quite a somebody in SPF during his service.

I don think the chinese guy dare to make a report because the remark that he pass was heard by everybody at the bus stop & he could be the one charged, instead of SH, for discriminating.

Just ask yourselves this.......what if those motherf^&*$ng terrorist was christions, jewish, hindu or any other religion they claim to be......wouldn't the tables turned.....

POINT TO PONDER........

[milky]

for me i tink tat ur fren did the right thing.. if not i tink tis man will keep on continue making bad remakes on malays... as for me i'm a chinese but most of my frenz are malays... so i tink tat in singapore tis kind of racist should be warned or something.. if not singapore will be like in the 50s or 60s... the race riots..

[SpiderOne]

say no to organized religion .

if you want someone to worship , u can worship me . But im different from the other gods . in the sense that i do exist and am not just a figment of someones imagination dreamt up to part you with your wallet and common sense

[Achilles Tang]

Take it easy... this inconvenience can fall on any other race, religion or association IF extremist groups from the same race, religion or association are causing such upsets in the general peace.

Yes, these are points to ponder.

Racism rears its ugly head everywhere.

In Malaysia, I have Chinese friends who get the short end of the stick too from the Malays.

Try living in Australia and you can get the occasional driveby where the whites will shout at Asians to go home.

The blacks get marginalized in USA.

The whites now live in fear in South Africa.

The local Chinese look down on Mainland Chinese.

Come on guys... these things will ALWAYS happen. The point to ponder would be... are we part of the problem or are we part of the solution?

Respecting one another is the bottomline.

Anyway... I'm glad that Chinese guy got taught a good lesson.

[AquaRa]

perhaps u have misinterpreted my question.

here is my revised thesis

Singapore’s counter-terrorism measures have led to people becoming more suspicious of Malays.

and not how the work of a miniority of extremists have changed the attitudes of non-malays towards moderate muslims.

[jd_n]

"The consistent security checks on commuters using Singapore’s land transport system are unnecessary and instead of making Singaporeans more aware of the terror crisis, has backfired and made other races more wary of anyone who is associated to Islam." - my thesis

In other words, people, while understanding the current situation, have also become more wary of 'suspicious' Islamic characters. Therefore, the line between extremists and Islam has been blurred. The view of Singaporeans may have changed after the terror attacks.

1)Has it achieved its aims of preventing threats to national security from developing in the first instance or does these checks merely serve to divide the community?

2) Are the checks on suspicious characters biased against Malays?

Someone please clarify my doubts and state your personal experiences. Are these checks really neccesary? Or do they serve as a basis for people to look at Islam with another point of view?

*no intention of offending anyone*

When nuthin is bein dn and things happen.> pple complain

When things r being dn and nuthin happen.> pple also complain.

Whether they "serve as a basis for people to look at Islam with another point of view".

OR

"Singapore’s counter-terrorism measures have led to people becoming more suspicious of Malays".

depends on how narrow minded one, will look at it.

Why hav so much doubts....juz let them do their jobs.