Malaysia bans messianic Islamic sect

Malaysia bans messianic Islamic sect

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad vowed "to break up their communes" if a radical Islamic sect, outlawed by his government on Friday, continued to teach its "deviationist" brand of Islam.

Al Arqam, a mystical Sufi sect that believes a messiah is coming soon before a prophesied doomsday, can no longer run its many businesses and schools or spread its teachings under a decree issued by the National Fatwa Council.

Many of the sect's estimated 100,000 followers live in 48 communal villages spread throughout Malaysia.

"If they continue to teach this wrong teaching we will have to put a stop to it," Mahathir told reporters after a meeting of the policy-making body of his ruling party, the United Malays National Organization.

"If we have to break up their communes we will do that," he said.

The government will use a battery of laws, including the Secret Societies Act, the Education Act, the Trade Act and the Printing Presses and Publication Act against the sect.

The ban makes it illegal for Malaysia's Moslems, about half the population of 19 million, to own, print or sell any of Al Arqam's literature, films, audio cassettes, posters, advertisements or other materials.

Under the decree, which is binding only for Moslems, Al Arqam will have to shut down more than 200 schools it operates in Malaysia.

The mini-markets, farms, food-processing factory and other businesses it owns can no longer carry the sect's logo. Al Arqam claims assets of more than 300 million ringgit ($115 million).

"They can't stop us from holding classes in our homes or under a tree. They can't stop us from reciting the Koran," an Al Arqam spokesman said.

Mahathir, who last month described the sect as a threat to national security, said the government had to act because the group's leader, Ashaari Muhammad, had become a cult-like figure.

Mahathir compared him to Jim Jones, whose followers committed mass suicide in Guyana in the 1970s, and David Koresh, the Branch Davidian leader who died, along with many of his followers, in a shootout and ensuing fire at his commune in Waco, Texas.

Defamation suit

"It has gone so far that he considers himself a prophet. He is like our friends Koresh and Jones," Mahathir said. "They are likely to mislead their followers to the point they may commit suicide or do harm to themselves."

An Al Arqam lawyer filed a defamation suit on Friday against the director of the Islamic Center, the government's division of Islamic affairs.

It alleges the Islamic Center falsely accused Al Arqam of having an army in Thailand. The spokesman said Al Arqam would probably file another suit challenging the ban.

Malaysia began a public campaign against the sect two months ago, saying it was training several hundred suicide warriors in Bangkok. Thailand has denied the claim.

The National Fatwa Council, a group of Islamic scholars appointed by the king, listed a dozen reasons why the group should be banned.

Among them was a charge that Ashaari claimed to have had a dialog with the Prophet Mohammad. "This crumbles the main foundation of Islam because it means that the Koran and Hadis are not yet finished and complete," the council said.

"They are the biggest threat faced by the government since the communist threat," Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Hamid Othman told reporters on Friday.

He said police would have full powers to enforce the ban. Religion ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations failed on Thursday to agree on a joint stand to ban the group.

A statement issued after a two-day meeting in the Malaysian resort of Langkawi said merely that Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei had barred Ashaari from traveling there.

Fundamentalism -- Page 11