ASEAN ministers meet to mull Islamic sect ban

ASEAN ministers meet to mull Islamic sect ban

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Four Southeast Asian nations were to adopt
a joint strategy during ministerial talks yesterday aimed at
outlawing a powerful Islamic messianic sect which has triggered
security concerns in the region, officials said.

"We expect a common line of action to face the religious and
social threat posed by the Al-Arqam movement," Hamid Othman, a
senior official in Malaysian Premier Mahathir Mohamad's office
said from the northern island resort of Langkawi.

Hamid spoke as the ministers in charge of Islamic affairs of
Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia began their one-day
meeting in Langkawi.

Senior Islamic government officials of Thailand and the
Philippines were also taking part in the meeting, an annual
affair under the auspices of the six-member Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"The Islamic authorities in Indonesia, Brunei and Singapore
have already agreed that Al-Arqam is deviationist. We are now
hoping the three will follow Malaysia's footsteps to thwart the
group's growth in their respective countries," Hamid said.

Al-Arqam, which began as a study group among Moslem scholars
in Kuala Lumpur in 1968, has blossomed into a powerful and
wealthy missionary group with branches in 15 countries under its
elusive self-styled leader Ashaari Muhammad.

The movement -- believed to have 100,000 followers and
sympathizers in Malaysia alone and several thousand overseas --
came under close scrutiny only recently, after Kuala Lumpur
accused it of training a suicide squad to defend its
controversial beliefs. Al-Arqam and Thailand, where Malaysia says
the squad was partially trained, have denied the charges.

The Malaysian Islamic clergy has charged that the teachings,
propagated by 57-year-old Ashaari, smack of mysticism and deviate
from Islamic scriptures.

The state-run Islamic center says it has video evidence of
Ashaari claiming to have had dialogs with the Prophet Mohammed, a
claim which Ashaari himself does not deny.

"If such an allegation is in fact true, I am not disgraced by
it, because this is part of Islam," Ashaari told AFP in a recent
interview in Thailand's northern Chiang Mai city.

"Fatwa"

Malaysia's powerful council of Islamic elders was preparing to
issue a "fatwa" (religious ruling) banning Al-Arqam tomorrow and
Hamid said he expected similar pronouncements in Indonesia,
Brunei and Singapore after the Langkawi meeting.

Ashaari is a persona-non-grata in Singapore, Indonesia and
Brunei while Thailand, under pressure from Kuala Lumpur,
reportedly ordered him out last week after providing him
sanctuary for the last six years.

Malaysian police chief Rahim Noor said Ashaari had fled to
Jordan.

Al-Arqam officials in Kuala Lumpur said they failed to
understand why Southeast Asian governments were clamping down
their movement as there was no proof to back claims that they
were a security threat.

"Ours is only a religious struggle and we will let God judge
us for our doings. Going by our sacred struggle, victory is a
promised one," Al-Arqam's senior liaison officer Mohamed Rodhi
Daud said.

Ashaari said: "Even if ASEAN governments clamped the
activities of Al-Arqam, they are doing it solely to maintain
close ties with Malaysia. We totally understand their
predicament."