THE banned Al-Arqam cult continues to thrive with more than 20 shops in a corner of Rawang, north of Kuala Lumpur, although its leader has been banished.
However, it has taken on another name - Rufaqa Corp, set up by its leader Ashaari Muhammad after he was placed under restricted residence in 1994.
Its website shows a cluster of businesses near Kajang, Selangor, and in Rompin, Pahang, and lists more than 40 types of businesses.
Al-Arqam was banned in 1994 after the government said it had deviated from orthodox Islam on a number of issues, including claims that its deceased Sufi leader would return as the Messiah.
Mr Ashaari, who stayed just a kilometre away from the shops in Rawang, denies the group is being revived or is operating secretly.
To stop any such attempt, the police banished him this week to Labuan, an island off Sabah with a population of only 70,000.
Sabah Police Commissioner Ramli Yussuf said yesterday that it would be easier to monitor his movement in the small island.
'We are monitoring the situation to see if there are any attempts to revive the movement in another form,' he said.
The worries of the police are perhaps justified.
A leader of a Muslim organisation told The Straits Times a delegation claiming to represent Mr Ashaari came to see him recently to persuade him to give support to the group.
At the height of his popularity in the late 80s, Al-Arqam claimed a membership of 10,000 and sympathisers numbering 100,000, including senior government officials.
It also claimed to have assets worth RM300 million (S$145 million).
Although banned from preaching, Mr Ashaari, 65, was not prevented from running his own business through Rufaqa. He is the group's executive chairman.
'We are running a legal business entity which are registered,' Rufaqa's corporate affairs manager Mohd Fazel Salleh told The Straits Times.
Asked about allegations that Mr Ashaari is reviving Al-Arqam, he said: 'He is being monitored by police, so any accusations have to go back to the police.'
Mr Ashaari's businesses in Rawang include a clinic, a car workshop, a mini-market, a furniture shop, an electrical shop, a cybercafe and a coffee shop.
They occupy the ground floor of a four-story shophouse complex.
Outsiders are easy to spot because all the Rufaqa men wear flowing robes and turbans, while the women are draped in loose-fitting clothes and tudungs.
But unlike the scowling stereotype of Muslim groups elsewhere, they always have ready smiles for visitors.
Above the shops, a boarding school run by former Al-Arqam members that was ordered closed last year has reopened under a different form.
The At-Tahalli Islamic school was shut down last year by the Selangor government due to suspicions that the 1,500 students were being taught Al-Arqam doctrine secretly.
Today, the Hubbullah Multipurpose Training Centre located in the same premises has 1,000 students, about a third of whom are females.
Said Mr Ahmad Abu Bakar, whose children study there: 'They are taught vocational training like how to use computers and repairing cars. In the afternoons they are taught about religion.'
He was not too concerned about Mr Ashaari's banishment.
'If that is the government's wish, so be it. We are happy to stay together here to practise Islam,' he said.