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.