MUIS' Use of Digital Social Media and Asatizah Recognition Scheme to Combat Trend of Online Radicalisation

23 Dr Shahira Abdullah asked the Minister for Social and Family Development and Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs in respect of youths getting radicalised online (a) how is MUIS utilising its digital platforms to combat this; (b) what is the level of reach and engagement of MUIS' SalamSG TV and MuslimSG to the general public and youths respectively; and (d) whether MUIS will consider supporting mysafespace.sg which connects users to certified asatizahs under the Asatizah Recognition Scheme for personalised and anonymous religious guidance through a chat portal.

The Minister for Social and Family Development and Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs (Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M): Mr Speaker, SalamSG TV is a faith-inspired YouTube channel developed by the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) during the circuit breaker in 2020 and is now part of the SalamSG Movement, a nationwide community movement driven by all mosques in Singapore with the aim of spreading good within and beyond the community. MuslimSG is a one-stop online media platform by MUIS that provides Islamic religious content.

MUIS leverages SalamSG TV and MuslimSG, as well as collaborates with key influencers to promote mainstream, contextualised Islam. This includes disseminating positive and religiously accurate and context-appropriate narratives that inoculate Muslim youths in Singapore against inappropriate, divisive and exclusivist religious content.

SalamSG TV and MuslimSG have achieved substantial reach and engagement, including with the youths. A significant portion of this reach is to youths. For SalamSG TV, 63.2% of its Facebook audience in 2022 were between the ages of 13 and 44 years old; and for MuslimSG, 70.9% of its Facebook audience in 2022 were between the ages of 13 and 44 years.

The hon Member raised mysafespace.sg, which is a chat portal that connects asatizah to those who wish to seek guidance on religious matters anonymously. This is a ground-up initiative by a group of asatizah and MUIS is not directly involved. However, most of the asatizah on mysafespace.sg are from the Asatizah Youth Network (AYN), which was formed by MUIS to engage youth in our community via social media. MUIS supports the AYN, by funding training in areas, such as developing positive counter-narratives, curating digital content as well as youth-specific counselling skills.

Parents and families play an important role to inculcate the right values and understanding of our religion. Sites like SalamSG and mysafespace.sg are good resources. But we should not, as parents, delegate our responsibility nor concede our duty of care to our children.

In the meantime, MUIS will continue to support the development of our asatizah, so that they may provide religious guidance to the community, including reaching out through different and innovative ways, such as mysafespace.sg. In 2019, the Committee on Future Asatizah (COFA) was formed to develop a vision for the asatizah of the future. In line with their recommendations to achieve this vision, MUIS remains committed to professionalise the asatizah sector, strengthen our religious institutions and nurture inspiring religious graduates.

Mr Speaker: Dr Shahira Abdullah.

Dr Shahira Abdullah (Nominated Member): I thank the Minister for his reply. I just have two supplementary questions.

The statistics that were given were wide. Is there a smaller breakdown available for the reach of these platforms? And if not, will the Ministry consider collecting such data? Because what we have right now is just for those aged 13 and 44. It is even beyond the youth age range.

Secondly, I agree that mysafesapce.sg is a great ground-up initiative by the asatizah. I am particularly heartened by it, because youths at that age do not really like to call the MUIS hotline. They prefer to chat, they prefer to type. It gives them an element of anonymity and a bit more confidence. I was wondering, if there is any other way that MUIS or the Ministry would want to support them either to promote or even to help out with their website? Because, right now, sometimes, it gets a bit buggy. Are there any plans for this?

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: On the first question, MUIS uses a particular service which gives this breakdown of their data. At this point of time, this service does not give very micro data that we can further analyse and see how we can understand the data. Right now, we are looking at a broad reach and I think it is generally okay. Unless there are necessary imperatives to spend more to get an even deeper dive, I think we will do with this for now.

For the second question, I accept that the young people may not always want to go to MUIS' website. It is quite frightening sometimes to talk to an ustaz; or to be known talking to an ustaz; or find out that the ustaz even knows him.

But the irony is that, if we endorse a particular site, which is actually a very independent and ground-up initiative, then we should also be mindful that youths think this is a MUIS site. And then, again, we lose the segment that this site, like mysafespace.sg, has gotten some reach to our youths. And therefore, endorsement is not something we should be doing just automatically.

Support can be given. If useful, MUIS can put that in its SalamSG, for example, to say these are other independent sites that youths could reach out to if they want support. And if there is any need for our asatizah in that space for further support, they should reach out to MUIS and we would be happy to let them thrive and support them.