Lawyer Rosli Kamaruddin, representing Global Ikhwan Services and Business Holdings (GISBH), said while the entity welcomes the initiative, its members are hesitant about whether to sign up for the programme.
“They do not know how to respond to the offer, especially because their senior leaders are still detained under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma).
“When a similar programme was introduced during (the late Al-Arqam founder) Ashaari Muhammad’s time, he himself gave orders that the community renounce its wayward teachings and return to the right path, but today there is no leader to give such an order,” he told FMT.
The defunct Al-Arqam movement, which amassed thousands of followers between the 1970s and the 1990s, was banned by the government in 1994 for deviating from Islamic orthodoxy.
Rosli also said some members have no interest in joining the programme as they do not consider the group’s beliefs and practices to be deviant.
This is despite a ban being imposed by four states – Melaka, Perlis, Pahang and Selangor – on GISBH’s teachings and practices on grounds that they are contrary to the teachings of Islam.
“It would be different if the CEO and members of the board of directors were able to advise members to join the rehabilitation programme, but unfortunately they are still detained under Sosma,” he said.
The members also want to know whether they will be paid allowances for the duration of the programme, having lost their livelihood after the authorities seized their business premises and other assets, said Rosli.
“They are now struggling to make ends meet. How will they provide for their families if they join this three-month programme? Will the government provide them allowances? If yes, how much?” he said.
He also noted that details of the programme, including its modules, remain “sketchy”.
Last Monday, the NSC announced the setting up of a voluntary rehabilitation programme for members of the Global Ikhwan network and followers of its doctrine with the aim of helping them “return to the true teachings of Islam” and assimilating into society.
NSC deputy director-general, Baharuddin Ahmad, said the three-month programme was aimed at correcting the religious beliefs of participants, offering teachings on shariah and patriotism, as well as counselling them on matters of education and health.
On Monday, Ashaari’s daughter, Khaulah Ashaari, a director in a GISBH subsidiary, told a press conference the community had long abandoned Al-Arqam’s deviant teachings.
Over the past month, police have arrested 415 individuals and rescued 662 children from charity homes operated by GISBH.
Fifty-eight people linked to the group remain in detention under Sosma.