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

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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