Malaysia aware of Isis propaganda, says police chief
Malaysian authorities are monitoring the violent extremist propaganda shared online, says the police chief.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's top cop said they have been keeping tabs on the spread of Daesh propaganda on social media and the terror group’s efforts to woo sympathisers.
Inspector-General of Police Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said the authorities are working closely with their counterparts in the region to monitor the situation so that action can be taken against the terror suspects.
“The (security) agencies have been keeping tabs on the matter and are stepping up efforts in monitoring (the spread of the ideology) to ensure (the public’s) safety,” Acryl Sani said in a statement today.
He said the public should not worry following reports on the spread of IS propaganda by its sympathisers, and that the situation is under control.
Acryl's statement came following a news report by news site The Vibes, in which home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail assures the public that there is no cause for worry over the presence of a group linked to IS in the country.
He said the authorities had been aware of the attempts by the group identified as Al Malaka Media Centre to expand its influence in the country.
The Vibes story also published a graphic supposedly by Al Malaka Media Centre, which shows two Daesh flags on top of the Petronas Twin Towers and a jet fighter, supposedly of the Malaysian Air Force, burning and falling to the ground.
The graphic carries a tagline that says "Hari Penaklukan Segera Tiba" which means “The Days of Conquest Coming Soon”, The Vibes reported.
The name of the media label seems to indicate it is operated out of the Malaysian state of Melaka.
It is not clear whether the media label is an official label sanctioned by Daesh's central organisation in the Middle East or just an unofficial one operated by a group of supporters and sympathisers, of which, there are quite a number detected and followed by researchers and terrorism monitors.
According to the Nordic Counter Terrorism Network’s (NCTN) Cyber Counter Terrorism Division, the group’s content is available on the dark web and has shared links with its support structure in Malaysia, reported The Vibes further.
It also revealed that the group used radical ideologies as part of its plan to destabilise the current unity government led by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
NCTN director Andrin Raj told The Vibes the group posed a national security threat and could potentially trigger indiscriminate small-scale acts of violence in the country.
Good read, especially to keep abreast of possible and potential threats