KUALA LUMPUR, July 4: Religious authorities in Malaysia’s Muslim heartland on Monday vowed to shut down a ‘deviant’ sect whose members were arrested in a weekend raid, saying it was a threat to national security. Among the 21 members detained were a police officer, a member of a popular local rock group and the fourth wife of the sect’s leader Ayah Pin, who managed to escape the crackdown on the remote commune in Terrengganu state.

“The activities and teachings of Ayah Pin must be stopped. That is our goal,” Muhammad Ramli Nuh, deputy chairman of Terengganu’s Islamic development committee, said.

Ayah Pin, a 65-year-old illiterate Malaysian, has attracted a significant following with his claims that he is God. His settlement is a popular destination for Muslim, Chinese and Indian Malaysians as well as tourists.

The sect has had run-ins with the authorities in the past, and four members were jailed for two years in 1998 for attempting to renounce Islam.

In April it also defied orders to destroy unusual structures it had built over the years — including a teapot which stands several metres high, a giant vase and an umbrella-like tower.

Muhammad Ramli, who led the seven-hour raid on the community’s village on Saturday by religious and regular police officers, said Ayah Pin should be detained under Malaysia’s draconian Internal Security Act.

—AFP