ANTI-ISLAM PAMPHLETS PROVOKE JAIL TERMS FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SINGAPORE 000563 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MTS - M. COPPOLA E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/16/2019 TAGS: PHUM SN SUBJECT: ANTI-ISLAM PAMPHLETS PROVOKE JAIL TERMS FOR SEDITION REF: SINGAPORE 460 Classified By: CDA Daniel Shields for reason 1.4(d) ¶1. (C) Summary: A Singapore court found a couple guilty of sedition on May 28 and sentenced them on June 10 to eight weeks in prison for distributing Christian pamphlets offensive to Muslims. The U.S.-published pamphlets, "The Little Bride" and "Who Is Allah?", portrayed Islam as "dangerous" and featured scurrilous attacks on the Prophet Mohammed. The case reportedly marks the first full trial under Singapore's Sedition Act for behavior deemed a threat to racial or religious harmony. In pronouncing sentence, the court emphasized the need to avoid damaging the country's "delicate" social fabric with inflammatory proselytizing, a standard government theme. Nevertheless, the sentences are at the bottom of the range requested by the prosecution and are far less than the court could have imposed. The couple remain free on bail pending appeal. Despite the judicial rhetoric, the head of the main civic group devoted to religious harmony told Poloff that the organization received no public comments or questions about the case and never regarded it as a threat to social stability. End summary. ¶2. (C) Comment: The "Little Bride" case reflects Singapore's ongoing effort to avoid a repeat of communal riots in the 1960s. It implicates the interests of two groups the government must manage carefully: the 14-percent Malay/Muslim minority and ethnic-Chinese evangelical Christians. In the past, Singapore's Chinese majority has often regarded the Malays as a potential destabilizing force along Muslim/non-Muslim or Malay/Chinese fault lines. Since 2001, the government also fears Malay radicalization and potential support for terrorist groups like Jemaah Islamiyah. Thus, it will not tolerate any provocation of Singaporean Muslims. Meanwhile, some observers see an increasingly assertive conservative Christian presence among affluent ethnic Chinese (reftel recounts a recent episode widely blamed on that faction). The "Little Bride" defendants are solidly middle-class ethnic-Chinese citizens who admitted to distributing thousands of evangelical tracts. To the extent the government views people like them as a possible source of communal friction, their prosecution for sedition may have been intended as a reminder that aggressive proselytizing is out of bounds. At the same time, too harsh a punishment might have risked evangelical backlash or proved unpopular with some conservative elements of the ruling People's Action Party. Such considerations could explain why the court, despite forcefully condemning the defendants' behavior, imposed relatively light sentences. End comment. Christian Couple Ordered Jailed for Seditious Proselytizing -------------- -------------- ¶3. (U) A middle-class Protestant Christian couple have been convicted of sedition and sentenced to eight weeks in prison for distributing pamphlets deemed capable of inciting hostility between Christians and Muslims. A court found Ong Kian Cheong and Dorothy Chan Hien Leng guilty on May 28 of one count of possessing, and two counts of distributing, seditious publications under the Sedition Act; sentencing took place on June 10. The case was reportedly the first complete trial under the decades-old Act. (In 2005, sedition charges arising from inflammatory racial remarks posted on the Internet led to guilty pleas by those defendants.) The court also convicted the pair of distributing an objectionable publication under the Undesirable Publications Act. The defendants, both of whom pleaded not guilty, are now appealing their convictions. Their attorney, Selva K. Naidu, confirmed to Poloff that they remain free on bail pending a decision on their appeals. Evangelical Pamphlets Attacked Islam -------------- ¶4. (SBU) According to press reports, Ong and Chan testified that for the past 20 years, they tried to spread Christianity by distributing religious pamphlets. Eventually, they began mailing the pamphlets to people chosen from telephone directory listings, including some with recognizably Muslim names. Among the pamphlets they distributed in the months before their January 2008 arrest were two published by United States-based Chick Publications: "The Little Bride" and "Who Is Allah?" The former brands Islam a "dangerous" religion and refers to the Prophet Mohammed as a "dirty old man" and "pedophile." The latter features a Muslim telling a Christian, "You people should fear us!" and boasting that "the Islamic religion is bringing England to her knees," before suddenly converting to Christianity upon being informed that Allah is really a pagan moon god. Three Muslim SINGAPORE 00000563 002 OF 002 Singaporeans who received copies from the defendants testified that the tracts had offended and angered them, and that they had believed an unknown Christian group was responsible for mailing them. Singapore's Fear of Communal Disharmony -------------- ¶5. (U) Singapore's Sedition Act reflects the government's intense concern for racial and religious harmony in the city-state, born of riots decades ago that still receive routine mention in political speeches and on the annual "Religious Harmony Day." In addition to criminalizing conduct that falls within the ordinary meaning of "sedition," such as inciting mass law-breaking or disloyalty, the Act defines sedition to include publications that "promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore." It is a crime to make, possess, or distribute a seditious publication. Analogous language in the Undesirable Publications Act makes it a crime to distribute materials "likely to cause feelings of enmity, hatred, ill-will, or hostility between different racial or religious groups." Violations of either law can draw substantial fines or prison terms of several months or years. In this case, prosecutors requested sentences of two to six months; the defense asked that punishment be limited to a fine. ¶6. (U) In pronouncing sentence, the court lambasted the defendants' "insensitivity" and said their actions threatened "to undermine and erode the delicate fabric of racial and religious harmony in Singapore." While reaffirming the right to proselytize (which is guaranteed by Singapore's constitution),the judge declared that such efforts must be constrained by respect for others' religious beliefs. The eight-week sentence is nevertheless the minimum requested by prosecutors and is nowhere near the theoretical maximum. In mitigation, the judge noted that (a) it was the couple's first offense, (b) they had apologized to the offended recipients, and (c) at the time of the offenses, the tracts were freely available for sale in a Singapore bookshop, potentially misleading the defendants to think they were not seditious. The bloggers charged with sedition in 2005 received lesser sentences, likely because they had accepted blame by pleading guilty. Inter-Religious Organization: What Disharmony? -------------- -- ¶7. (C) Singapore's main civic organization for religious harmony perceived no threat in the "Little Bride" case. Rustom Ghadiali, current president of the Inter-Religious Organization (IRO) that represents the ten major religions of Singapore, told Poloff that the IRO routinely monitors the news for events that have the potential to disrupt communal relations, as well as taking complaints and questions from the general public. Ghadiali (who is Zoroastrian) gave the example of the recent dispute over the leadership of civil society group AWARE, which pitted conservative Christians against secular members, and which IRO judged had the potential to excite harmful religious passions (see reftel). In that case, the IRO governing board convened an emergency meeting and agreed on statements for immediate issuance by senior religious figures to calm the public debate. Ghadiali told Poloff that the "Little Bride" case, by contrast, generated no public inquiries or complaints to the IRO, and neither the Muslim members nor any other IRO representatives called for a meeting to address it. Visit Embassy Singapore's Classified website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eap/singapore/ind ex.cfm SHIELDS