In this respect, I wanted to investigate whether Singapore harboured anyone of these proxies. The government of Singapore has made clear statements that there are no terrorist organisations having deposited monies or made transactions here. My investigations support the government’s conclusion and it was further supported by a prominent Indian Muslim moneychanger who does not wish to be named. He said, "You know the big players when they come here to put money especially those from the Middle East and Pakistan. They always come to us when the banks reject them to do their transactions but we too have our ways of checking on them. There are some we reject because we are not too sure of their backgrounds. Plus, we also know we can get in trouble with the law especially when our authorities are vigilant."

This brings us to the next question. In our banks there are checks and balances but in the arena of an informal network of money transfer, where are the checks and balances? According to the Indian Muslim money changer, "there can be no hundred percent way of checking whether they are terrorists or not. But he also claims that Singapore has strict financial laws and guidelines and those involved in covert operations would not risk putting their money here as it might blow their cover." In this sense, he was correct as I later found out that most of the transactions and deposits were to be found north of our border.

Last week, I received an e-mail message from a good friend of mine, a Jewish journalist from Israel to look up an Indonesian who would be in Singapore and who could help me to write a story on terrorism in the Southeast Asian region.

Sumardi (not his real name) is of Javanese descent, in his early forties, educated in the US in engineering and considers himself part of the new generation of young Indonesian Muslims trying to progress with the teachings of Islam. He believes in the democratisation process in Indonesia and believes that the teachings of Islam can co-exist in a plural society. However, he fears the current militant nature of Islam among some of the younger generation of Muslims. He fears the group, Islam Defenders Front; a group led by Muhammad Rizieq.

This group is notorious as it was in the news last year when during the period of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, they had rioted and smashed karaoke bars, discotheques and after the September 11 incidents had issued public statements that Americans and Israelis would be unwelcome on Indonesian soil. Sumardi confirmed that this group has links with Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network. The group has received at least US$100 000 dollars for its activities from Osama bin Laden. 154 of this group’s members have gone to Afghanistan through the Pakistani town of Quetta to undergo guerrilla warfare training preparing for a worldwide "jihad". Sumardi also confirmed that this group has strong links with some members of PAS in Malaysia and also extremist Islamic groups in southern Philippines and southern Thailand.

The connections in Malaysia are for putting money in Islamic self-help groups and at the same time for Islamic banking purposes. Sumardi categorically states that PAS' leadership has known of this for a long time. As we have received news reports from Malaysia about links with Osama bin Laden so there exists a network of like minded people who believe in militancy and deliberately utilising terror to gain political advantage. All I wanted to know how he knew all of this.

It was then that Sumardi in a sad tone told me how one of his nephews, Tajuddin (not his real name), had joined the Islam Defenders Front. He was now based in Kuala Lumpur apparently doing a computer course but according to Sumardi that was just a cover for his preaching and recruitment drive as he had already received a university education in Melbourne, Australia. I wanted to meet the young man and Sumardi arranged for it. Another reason why the meeting was possible was that Tajuddin wanted to leave Malaysia as there was a crack down on deviant Islamic teachings and there was a directive from his leaders in Jakarta for all the members to congregate in Jakarta to deal with any attacks on Afghanistan.

I met Tajuddin at the PKMS building (coffee stall) at Changi Lorong 108 together with his uncle, Sumardi. He did not look anything like an extremist conjured up by popular western media. He was well groomed except for a small growth underneath his chin. He wore modern western clothes and seemed to me by appearance as a man of culture. However, my subsequent discussion belied his looks.

Sumardi managed to get him to meet me on the pretext that I was a human rights activist who was sympathetic to the suppression of Muslim people and also someone who had connections with people who could produce fake Singapore passports.

Tajuddin was somewhat disappointed when I told him that getting passports would be difficult and asked whether he could speak to me about his organisation and its aims. He seemed disinterested at first more likely because his mission was to get some fake passports. He also wanted to know how to obtain student visas here or if I knew of anyone who could help in smuggling people from Changi Airport. For me, the whole discussion was getting quite disconcerting but I really wanted to know what really made this person join an extremist group in this region especially when he clearly comes from an upper middle class family.

Tajuddin first talked about the ignorance and powerlessness of Muslims around the world. He believed that the Islamic civilisation had produced many great minds during its golden era. However, he felt that the Western civilisation had suppressed its people and will continue to suppress its people. But what had violence or "Jihad" had to do with this? This is what I really wanted to know.

According to Tajuddin, "Jihad" had everything to do with it. He claimed without a tinge of regret that the September 11 strikes was an act of war against the leader of the Western world and that the action was the beginning of a timeless war against the West. He believed that for the Muslims to recreate the golden era of Islam, the West must be destroyed, as they are the embodiment of evil.

I said that there were many peace loving people from the Western world. He countered by saying that the people from the West wanted quiet not peace. Tajuddin definitely knew his stuff; he was quoting from the Reverend Jesse Jackson. He continued by arguing that the West wanted the whole world to be quiet for the atrocities committed against Muslims but talk of peace and freedom only when "Muslim martyrs had crashed into the twin towers" and disrupted the quiet of western life. The West, according to him, understands one thing and that is force and they (the "real believers") will continue with propagating "Jihad".

I told him that the Arab leaders and religious scholars had denounced the attack in New York and the militancy that he was espousing was not going to be accepted by the majority of peace loving Muslims. Tajuddin argued that the leaders cannot control the feelings and emotions of the Muslims. He also argued that the Muslims were blinded by the false power and attractiveness of the West. I put to him asking how he intended to get the majority of Muslims on his side.

Tajuddin reached out to his bag and took a stack of magazines that were written in Arabic, some cassette tapes which were sermons of leaders from PAS and also some videotapes. He said these were the collections of "truth" that would put right the falsity of Western propaganda. I looked through the magazines and there were pictures of children without limbs, funeral processions of apparent Palestinian civilians, emaciated Arab men and women. Yet to make their point they had juxtaposed with those pictures the rich lifestyles of Western men and women. I wanted to see what was in the tape and we went to Sumardi’s hotel and managed to borrow a video cassette player. The contents of the tape were a brilliant propaganda exercise even Goebbels would have been proud of. It was well edited and from cut to cut, it highlighted the perceived injustice of the Americans and how the Palestinians, Kashmiris and Iraqis had suffered because of American intransigence. I was very sure that some parts of the videotapes were not manifestations of the truth but I was quite sure of the sentiments it would produce in a Muslim household. Even Sumardi said that the videotapes should be banned for they produce unnecessary emotional stress for any Muslim and that it sends the wrong message to the majority Islamic "Ummah" or community.

Tajuddin, on the other hand, disagreed and told him that this was the reality the Muslims needed to face up to and that it is through arms that a world Islamic order based on justice and righteousness would be established. He also added that the fastest growing religion is Islam and that they would be ready to take on the world no matter how long it takes. What about peace which is the essence of Islam, I asked. It was then that I really knew that I was speaking to a converted extremist and incorrigible militant being. He calmly stated that evil and peace cannot co-exist. Evil had to be eliminated.

Tajuddin is the representation of the new religious militancy in our region. In his life he has not gone hungry nor has he been at the receiving end of brutal repression. Yet this young and intelligent man is prepared to go to Afghanistan to defend the Taliban, prepared to pounce on unsuspecting Westerners and prepared to do whatever is necessary to establish their version of Islam in this part of the world.

The radicalism is scary as it could in the future be a destabilising factor in the region. Tajuddin is determined and disciplined. Virtues I wished he did not possess considering the views he holds on to. However, what were the factors that made this person become an extremist? I seriously don’t know but I do know that they exist preparing young men to die for their cause. His parting words to me were "to embrace Islam" or I gathered, his version of the noble religion, before it was too late. It was done with a smile. The smile of terror I could not help thinking to myself. The next day air strikes on Afghanistan began and Tajuddin was definitely among the protesters in Jakarta.