Freed sect leader dissolves group

Freed sect leader dissolves group

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): The freed leader of the outlawed
Islamic sect Al Arqam declared on Saturday that the sect no
longer existed and urged his followers to renounce their
deviationist religious beliefs.

Ashaari Muhammad said this meant he was no longer leader of
the movement and its leadership hierarchy had been dissolved.

"Let's leave the mistakes behind us and take up the good," he
told some 1,000 followers at the main commune and headquarters of
the messianic sect in a fashionable suburb of Kuala Lumpur.

Ashaari was released last Friday along with five of his
followers after a two-month detention, a week after he recanted
his beliefs before Malaysia's highest Islamic religious council.
The council had banned Al Arqam on Aug. 5 for "deviationist
teachings" including the coming of a messiah.