Article

2006-12-29 Southeast Asia

A corporation that the government accuses of reviving "deviant" Islamic teachings outlawed more than 10 years ago, has filed a RM150m ($42.5m) defamation case against Malaysian Islamic authorities. Islamic authorities in Selangor recently detained some members of Rufaqa Corporation on allegations of rekindling the outlawed al-Arqam sect.

The Malaysian government banned al-Arqam in 1994 on grounds that it was heretical for projecting its leader, Ashaari Mohammed, as a messiah who had the authority to forgive the sins of Muslims.

The Malaysian government banned al-Arqam in 1994 on grounds that it was heretical for projecting its leader, Ashaari Mohammed, as a messiah who had the authority to forgive the sins of Muslims. Ashaari also heads Rufaqa, which runs multi-million-dollar businesses from restaurants to schools. It has operations in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Jordan.

Rufaqa filed its defamation case against Mustapha Abdul Rahman, the director of the Malaysian Islamic Development Department; Abdul Rahman Palil, the chairman of Islamic Affairs of Selangor; and Zabidi Shariff, former legal adviser to al-Arqam. Aziz Hashim, the economic and corporate adviser of Rufaqa, told Al Jazeera on Thursday: "Saying Rufaqa is trying to revive [al-Arqam] is simply not true. As a company we don't have any belief. We don't practise religion. We are a company only. We don't have a religious agenda. If we have religious agenda, we wouldn't register as a business."

Posted by Fred 2006-12-29 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11132 views since 2007-05-07] Top

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