Alarm Over Online Push by ISIS for Followers in S-E Asia to Take Up Arms

Experts Flag Hyperlocal Messaging and Speed at Which Extremist Narratives Are Spreading

- Hariz Baharudin

The threat of an online caliphate led by terror group ISIS is rising in South-east Asia, Singapore's latest terrorism threat report has warned, and regional experts say the absence of attacks does not mean an absence of danger.

Even as the terror group's physical strongholds in the Middle East have crumbled, its ideological reach has migrated online, where propaganda is being repackaged in local languages and weaponised to exploit regional grievances.

Terrorism analysts told The Straits Times that the authorities must not underestimate the speed at which these narratives are spreading, or the risk that radicalised individuals could act faster than states can respond.

The Singapore Terrorism Threat Assessment Report 2025, released by the Internal Security Department (ISD) on July 29, flagged a surge in hyperlocal propaganda efforts by ISIS supporters in the region.

One example cited was how Indonesian militants marked the anniversary of the Sept 11, 2001, terror attacks in the US by circulating calls for jihad that tied the Gaza conflict to local struggles, including grievances involving Chinese Indonesians and national development projects. Jihad is an Arabic word that means struggle, but it has been misinterpreted by extremists to mean a holy war.

A plot to attack the Singapore Exchange was also highlighted in the report. Indonesian militant Yudi Lukito Kurniawan, a former Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) member linked to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, was tasked in 2014 with leading the attack, which was seen as an indirect strike against the US via a regional ally.

Yudi tried to enter Singapore in 2015 to further the plan, but was denied entry due to his terror-related past. He was arrested in Sulawesi in August 2024.

These cases show how extremist narratives are being tweaked to resonate more deeply within South-east Asian societies.