Uproar over Malaysian farm linked to banned Al-Arqam sect in Australia

KUALA LUMPUR, June 10 ― An allegedly “unauthorised” farm Down Under owned by Global Ikhwan Sdn Bhd, a company linked to banned Islamic sect Al-Arqam, has come under fire from residents nearby, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC News) reported today.

Residents of Mangrove Mountain, a suburb in the Australian state of New South Wales, are reportedly opposed to the mystery farm built on land that was earmarked for an international agricultural boarding school.

The residents have also demanded their local city council investigate the isolated site where they believe to be home to a community of some 50 people, including children.

“The concern is it is an unauthorised development,” ABC News quoted a resident as saying.

The resident, who refused to be identified, was also reported voicing concern for the children said to be living on the farm, as well as hygiene issues.

“My personal concern is the welfare of the people living there.

“Children… are they attending school?” the unnamed resident was quoted saying.

According to the report, the local Gosford City Council investigated the farm earlier this year and identified several unauthorised structures but did not specify anything.

ABC News said it contacted a member of Global Ikhwan who confirmed the company was rearing cattle and goats but downplayed the number of people living on the farm.

The Australian broadcaster linked Global Ikhwan to the Al-Arqam movement that the Malaysian government had banned in 1994, saying its Shiah members were practising a deviant form of Islam.

Malaysia follows the “Sunnah wal Jamaah” school of Islam, but religious authorities have long grappled with pockets of different sects that have taken root across the country.

In 2013, Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the spread of the Shiah ideology is an “issue of faith and national security”, and has been determined by the National Fatwa Council in 1996 that it is a deviant movement that goes against the tenets of Sunnah wal Jamaah, the dominant Islamic ideology in Malaysia.