Malaysia and Neighbors to Curb Sects
International Herald Tribune
August 5, 1994
Michael Richardson 

Southeast Asian countries, wary of allowing religion and politics to mix, will take coordinated measures against Muslim movements that threaten the region's political stability or religious harmony, officials said Thursday.

Malaysia, where Islam is the official religion, is expected to issue a ban Friday on the teachings and activities of Al Arqam, a Muslim missionary movement that has used Malaysia as a base for expansion into other parts of Southeast Asia.

Analysts said that countries in the region, all of which have multireligious populations, were concerned that any form of Islamic extremism would cause divisions among Muslims and alarm non-Muslims, including the influential Chinese.

Malaysian officials have accused Al Arqam, which claims to have 100,000 followers in Malaysia and many more elsewhere in Asia, of planning to gain political power and turn the country into an Islamic state modeled after Iran.

The sect believes that a great Muslim reformer will soon appear, heralding an Islamic revival in East Asia.

Tarmizi Taher, the Islamic affairs minister of Indonesia, said his country, where more than 85 percent of the population of 185 million are Muslims, was "seriously considering" banning Al Arqam.

He was attending a meeting of Southeast Asian ministers and officials in charge of religious affairs on the Malaysian island of Langkawi.

In comments in Jakarta, Mr. Tarmizi described Al Arqam as a "tendentious" political force that could "poison the spirit of Islamic bonds, especially among the younger generation in Indonesia."

Brunei banned the sect in 1991, and both Singapore and Thailand recently ordered Abuya Ashaari Muhammad, Al Arqam's leader, to leave their territory.

Mr. Ashaari has claimed that he is more popular in Malaysia than Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad and said that, although he has no political ambitions, he would accept national leadership if the Malaysian people demanded it and God willed it.

Mr. Ashaari, who is reported to be in Jordan, will be arrested if he returns to Malaysia, Mr. Mahathir said.

It is not clear how members of the group will react to any ban. But analysts said that any crackdown might be difficult to enforce and could arouse strong protests or even violence from Al Arqam followers.

Al Arqam was founded in 1968 by Mr. Ashaari, a former member of an Islamic opposition party in Malaysia.

Analysts said Malaysian authorities decided to take action against the sect when it became clear that it was gaining a significant following in the bureaucracy, the education system and the Malay Muslim party that has a dominant position in the multiethnic coalition that rules Malaysia.

The government was alarmed when 19 Malaysian members of Al Arqam were arrested in April at a Muslim fundamentalist demonstration in Cairo.

Al Arqam, which gives its followers access to a mystical belief and an exclusive way of life, "offers a refuge from the challenges of modernization, like cult movements in the West," a Malaysian university lecturer said Thursday.

Al Arqam has established about 50 Islamic villages in Malaysia where members form a tightly knit community with their own schools, shops, health clinics, playgrounds and code of behavior.

Abdullah Fahim, research director in the Islamic affairs division of the prime minister's department, said Al Arqam would no longer be able to operate schools or run businesses under its name after the ban takes effect Friday.

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