Police monitor outlawed sect after 100 arrests
Malaysiakini.com
Nov 29, 2006

Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharum today said police were monitoring suspected members of an outlawed Islamic sect to see if the movement was spreading across the majority Muslim country.

Johari said police were gathering information on members of the Al Arqam sect, a move which came after the arrest in Selangor of some 100 people believed to be followers.

"Police are now monitoring. We believe they are not only in Selangor, but in other places in the country. We are looking into it," Johari told AFP.

The deputy minister said police were working with federal and Selangor Islamic authorities and were awaiting information from them on the activities of Al Arqam members.

Religion is a sensitive issue in Malaysia, which is always on the lookout for Islamic sects which deviate from the teachings of Islam and are considered subversive.

Officials from Selangor's Islamic religious department arrested the alleged Al Arqam followers Saturday in a suburb south of Kuala Lumpur for trying to revive the teachings of the once 10,000-strong movement.

"At one time they were a very big organisation ... but this time it's not clear how serious their influence is," said Johari.

Al Arqam has been banned since 1994 for its teachings.

Its former leader, Ashaari Muhammad, had claimed he was a prophet and predicted he would be the next prime minister after Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who retired in October 2003.

Fatwas against Rufaqa

Ashaari was released in 2004 after spending two years in detention and a further eight years under restrictions governing his movements.

Johari's comments came as authorities said they were monitoring a corporation called Rufaqa, which is also reportedly a front for a religious movement trying to revive Al Arqam.

Ashaari is the founder and chairman of the movement's Rufaqa corporation, which sells music compact discs, herbal remedies and handicrafts and also runs publishing and travel agency businesses, according to its website.

"Rufaqa is a business matter, but behind them is a movement to revive Al Arqam," the director-general of Malaysia's federal Department of Islamic Development, Mustafa Abdul Rahman, told AFP.

Mustafa said a meeting of muftis last month had discussed Rufaqa's teachings and several Malaysian states - including Kedah, Selangor and Johor - had already issued fatwas against the movement.

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