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Malaysia: Crackdown On Islamic Schools Owned By Disbanded Sect
by Kazi Mahmood for IslamOnline
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Malaysian authorities on Monday ordered the closure of two Islamic schools suspected of reviving the teachings of a banned sect in the state of Selangor.
The Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (JAIS) suspect the schools, with more than 1500 students, were promoting in secrecy the ideas of the once fledging al-Arqam group, headed in the past by Ashari Mohammad.
The At-Tahalli primary and secondary Islamic schools located in the township of Rawang, just north of Kuala Lumpur, have been operating for more than a year with a temporary license issued by the JAIS.
Ashaari Muhammad formed the controversial Al-Arqam group in 1968. Extremely successful in business activities, the group managed to build a power base among Malay-Muslims in Selangor and other Malaysian states.
It had a business turnover estimated in Malaysian Ringgit millions ($1.00 = RM3.80), owned several small and medium enterprises and owned factories producing their own brand of products.
At its peak, the group claimed a hardcore membership of 10,000 which included men and women clad in Islamic dress driving taxis around Kuala Lumpur and running shops in major shopping complexes.
They also owned several neighborhood Maktabs, or small schools, where they taught Islam and Qur'anic readings.
The al-Arqam group was banned in Malaysia in 1994 after the government said it deviated from the teachings of orthodox Islam on a number of key issues, including claims that its deceased Sufi leader Suhaimi, would return as the messiah.
Ashaari, along with his closest aids, wife and children, were arrested and detained under the famous Internal Security Act, and was literally hijacked from Thailand, where he was residing and operating his headquarters, and brought to Kuala Lumpur where he was sent straight to jail.
Being detained without trial, he was released less than two years later after agreeing to confess to his deviationist practices and that he used his photographs to promote himself as a religious leader.
Ashaari lives just a kilometer away from the schools that were ordered closed by the JAIS. He is suspected of having backed the schools.
"Jais directed the closure of the schools based on its investigations and reports from its research department," Selangor Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Zainal Abidin Ahmad, told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.
He said that most of the students in the schools were the children of former al-Arqam members.
The government's concern over the revival of the group could perhaps be seen in the rising enrollment of students in the school in question, he said.
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