Alert at the Coast: How Tech Zionism and Private City Enclaves Undermine Muslim Sovereignty

News:

The Straits Times and numerous media outlets reported that Malaysia’s Home Ministry launched an intensive investigation in July 2026 into the Network School, a tech community based in Forest City, Johor Bahru. The probe was triggered by allegations that several participants with ‘Israeli’ nationality bypassed immigration restrictions by entering the country using dual passports. Founded as an exclusive commune by former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, the project has drawn fierce backlash in Malaysia’s parliament over the spread of "Tech Zionism" and threats to national sovereignty. Following an immigration crackdown on this "charter-city" and "network-state" concept, a planned US$122 million investment was paused, highlighting Malaysia's resolve to safeguard its political stability and national security.

Comment:

Network School has thrust Forest City back into the spotlight after its bid to revive the project as a Special Financial Zone (SFZ) and shed its “ghost town” reputation. In short, Network School (NS) is a luxurious co living and co working community tailored for expatriate tech professionals, content creators, and digital entrepreneurs from around the world. The community rents facilities within the Forest City megaproject in Johor.

Whether ‘Israeli’ presence is conclusively proven or not, Malaysian activists’ concerns are understandable: public suspicion first surfaced in October 2025, when pro Zionist influencer Nas Daily published a promotional video for Network School in Johor. It also emerged that the Network School application form contained unusual questions—prospective members were reportedly asked about their political views on ‘Israel’ and any involvement in military technologies.

If these allegations are substantiated, Malaysia – a Muslim-majority nation that has long been outspoken in championing freedom for Palestine – clearly faces a serious, multi-dimensional threat to its sovereignty. The first threat is the ideological penetration of Zionism via technology, described by several Malaysian observers as “Tech Zionism”: a symbiosis between Zionist ideology and tech capitalism that piggybacks on the global digital nomad trend, where borderless workers operate without physical offices and can form exclusive enclaves in places like Forest City through the use of second passports.

Balaji Srinivasan, the founder of Network School, is part of Silicon Valley’s techno libertarian elite who believe that technology is entitled to transcend the laws of traditional nation states. For many analysts, the construction of such exclusive “tech colonies” that disregard local norms is not mere innovation, but a form of Digital Neo Colonialism: an attempt by global elites to carve out physical territories to serve their own community’s agenda.

The second threat is the neoliberal capture of Muslim coastal living spaces. The trend of private seaside cities – from Dubai Marina in the UAE and NEOM in Saudi Arabia to Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK) in Indonesia – reflects a deliberate capitalist model designed to indulge expatriate and digital nomad markets. Within this landscape, the Network School phenomenon in Forest City stands out as an extreme example of convergence between modern property commercialisation and the new political ideology of tech elites. Through special statuses such as a Special Financial Zone, private investors align with local authorities to relax regulations and smooth the entry of capital, multinational corporations, and foreign expatriates.

These artificially engineered capitalist mega‑cities ravage the environment, widen social fragmentation, and turn coastal zones into moral wastelands – saturated with gambling and alcohol – while serving as safe havens for foreign expatriates who import corrosive values and ideologies. A laissez faire creed that demands unchecked development does not merely surrender Muslim land to projects stripped of any spiritual compass; it places the community’s identity, values, and dignity at grave risk. In such a climate, Muslims grow intellectually weakened, forget the grandeur of their own history, and neglect the immense responsibility to rise and rebuild the Khilafah (Caliphate), an authentic leadership system civilisation grounded in faith and justice.

These manufactured capitalist cities are no different from Trump’s “New Gaza” project: a glossy camouflage of “development” and “progress” that in reality carries a new imperialist agenda into the Muslim world, masking the ugly footprints of past colonialism. Just as activists in Gaza have warned, “If you do not struggle alongside us, they (the Zionists) will come for you next, and they will turn your land into another Gaza.” So be warned.

[وَاتَّقُواْ فِتْنَةً لاَّ تُصِيبَنَّ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُواْ مِنكُمْ خَآصَّةً وَاعْلَمُواْ أَنَّ اللّهَ شَدِيدُ الْعِقَابِ]

“Guard yourselves against a tribulation which will not strike only the wrongdoers among you and know that Allah is indeed most severe in His punishment.” [Qur’an, Al Anfal 8:25].

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Dr. Fika Komara
Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir