"Jihad camp"? It was Fardhu ain camp.
Article #9
When I was in Singapore in 2014, my friend, Muhammad (we set up Fateha together and he later joined AlMakhazin) and I discussed organising a Fardhu Ain camp. Fardhu Ain refers to a Muslim’s personal obligations such as prayers, ablution, fasting etc.
According to Muhammad, a lot of Muslim youths did not know their fardhu ain. I realised that was true.
Muhammad had previously helped Ustadz Zhulkeflee Ismail organise several fardhu ain camps. They were held for a few days, in a fun, outdoor camping environment. We discussed it in AlMakhazin and approached Ustadz Zhulkeflee to ask him to lead it.
By then, Ustadz Zhulkeflee was recovering from a stroke. But he had the modules for the camp activities and the fardhu ain programs. He had one condition: before giving us the modules, we would have to go through the program first.
By the time we progressed the discussion with Ustadz Zhulkeflee, I was ready to return to Melbourne. The plan was shelved. But I talked about it to anyone interested in case there were opportunities or ideas on how it could be organised.
One day about a couple of weeks after I was arrested, Tim asked me about a conversation I had on Facebook messenger with an online friend, Sha’aban Yahya. Sha’aban was a Singaporean who lived in Johor, Malaysia.
The ISD had forced me to give them my Facebook, emails and bank accounts log in and passwords. They went through all these accounts and subsequently shut them down.
“He said he wanted to start a Leadership Training Institute what is that?” Tim asked me.
“I don’t know. I think I talked to him about the fardhu ain camp” I told him.
Tim became excited. “What is that? What is that? What camp?”
I tried to tell him “It is to teach Muslim youths how to pray...”
“Shut up! Shut up! What is that camp?!” he shouted.
“It’s to teach them fardhu ain...” I tried again.
“Fuck you! Shut up! Why you talk to him? He is in Malaysia!”
“Just an idea I was throwing to see if anyone is interested.”
“Fuck you. Fuck you. Why Malaysia? Why not in Singapore?!”
“It’s just an idea. Lots of ...” (I was going to say Singapore holiday companies organised camps in Malaysia)
“Fuck you! Shut up! Why Malaysia?”
“Lots of...”
“Shut up! Fuck you! Fuck You! Why Malaysia? Walid is at NUS why not at NUS?” (Walid Jumblatt was a PhD candidate and part of AlMakhazin).
“It’s just an idea. I was...” (asking around for ideas)
“Shut up! Fuck you! Why Malaysia?”
Tim went on and on, screaming questions, telling me to shut up when I tried to answer.
He kept shouting “Fuck you!” and “motherfucker”. He sat on his chair and in a normal voice, looked at me and said “pukimak” (mother’s cunt).
After several hours, he shouted “What activities will you have at the camp?”
“I don’t know” I replied “I have not looked at the module.”
“Fuck you! What activities will you have?”
“I don’t know I haven’t...”
“Shut up! Fuck you! Shut up!”
It went on again. For hours.
I kept telling him I had not seen the module and did not know what the program would be like.
Tim kept screaming.
Finally, he asked.
“What sports will there be?” I told him I did not know.
“What sports?!”
“I don’t know” I repeated.
“What are the Islamic sports?” he asked.
“Islamic sports?” I asked, confused. “Swimming, horse riding, archery.”
“Archery right! Archery right! What is archery for? Jihad right?!” he pounced.
“What?”
“Archery what is it for? Jihad right?”
I was upset. How did we go from fardhu ain camp to him asking me about Islamic sports and jihad? I didn’t even know what sports, if any, there would be.
“What was archery for?”
“Yes archery was used for jihad.”
“Your camp will have archery. It is a jihad camp right?” he shouted.
“No” I told him.
He kept screaming and threatened me repeatedly. Finally, I figured that it did not make any difference. I had already signed so many false statements. What was another one? I needed to go through the interrogation as quickly as possible so I could get my children out of Singapore.
After hours of his screams and threats, I gave in.
“Ok” I told him.
Tim smiled, self-satisfied. “Who else is involved in the jihad camp?”
“No one. Just me.”
“Where would it be?”
“What?” I asked, confused.
“Where will the camp be?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Muhammad is building a Qur’an school in Malaysia right? Will you do it there?”
“No Muhammad is not involved.”
“So you plan to use it but not tell him?”
“Yes, I planned to use it without telling him.”
“Did Ustadz Zhul know your plans?”
“No he didn’t know my plans. It was only me.”
Continued in the next article.