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. |
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."