ABSTRACT
The outbreak of the Maria Hertogh riots revealed, most crucially, the entrenched weaknesses of the British intelligence services. The basic assumptions that all threats emanated from foreign agencies whose sole object was the displacement of British colonial rule and that subversive activities in Singapore posed only minor threats to the security of the island were suddenly shattered and rendered obsolete.1 Rather, the British became convinced that the Islamic threat originated from within Singapore as much as from without. Militant and radical ideologies and movements, the British now believed, were rooted within the Singapore Muslim community itself, and there was to be no delay in redressing their past oversight. A broader and more effective system of espionage was established. Agents and spies infiltrated Muslim gatherings of all kinds and monitored the evolving sentiments of all communities on the island. In some cases, however, the concerns and anxieties registered in British intelligence reports were driven largely by a paranoid sense of imaginary threats, rather than by reality.
