KUALA LUMPUR, 5 July 2005 — Authorities in Malaysia’s Muslim heartland yesterday 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 told AFP.

Ayah Pin, a 65-year-old illiterate Malaysian, has attracted a significant following. His settlement is a popular destination for Muslim, Chinese and Indian Malaysians as well as foreign 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 meters high, a giant vase and an umbrella-like tower.

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

“From the religious point of view, they have tarnished Islam. The cult leader should be detained under the ISA. He is a threat to national security,” he said.

But Noh Omar, deputy internal security minister, ruled out the use of the ISA against the cult members.

The sect was small in number and was not a threat to the country’s security, he was cited as saying by the Bernama news agency.

“We will use the existing legal provisions under the Terengganu Syariah enactment to prosecute them,” he added.

Last month, the government said some 3,000 members of 22 deviant religious sects identified in Malaysia could face being held under the ISA — which allows for detention without trial — if they threaten national security.