Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - A two-storey-high pink teapot, an equally large yellow umbrella and a giant blue urn are not obvious symbols of any major religion. But these outsized monuments at a sect's headquarters in north-eastern Malaysia have become the backdrop to a crisis which is raising delicate questions of racial and religious freedom in the nation's heartland.
At the weekend, dozens of religious department officials and police raided the Sky Kingdom sect in the village of Kampung Batu 13 in Terengganu state. Twenty-one of the approximately 150 devotees in residence were arrested, including a police inspector and the drummer in a popular local band.
Seventeen have been charged with violating a fatwa that ruled the sect's teachings on Islam were deviant, while the other four face prosecution for possessing materials which allegedly humiliate Islam. They have all been bailed and trials have been scheduled tentatively for September.
The motivation behind the crackdown may appear clear cut, but the action has raised more questions than it has answered. Most prominent among them are: Considering no recent outrage was committed, why was the raid conducted now as opposed to any time in the sect's years-long existence? Why was its leader, Ariffin Mohamad, better known as Ayah Pin, not arrested? Why was the sect not shut down if it is deviant?
The Sky Kingdom dates back to the early 1990s when Ayah Pin was in his late 40s. A barely literate man, he had been declared a deviant by the religious authorities the previous decade and proclaimed himself a deity for all believers.
Conveniently - as far as staying on the right side of Malaysia's laws is concerned - he embraced all religions, saying they were mere earthly creations recognised and embraced by a universal god, of whom he claimed to be the embodiment.
People of all faiths flocked to him and within a few years Ayah Pin claimed a following of several thousand. Estimates of its current strength range from 3,000 to ten times that figure. After years as a religious sideshow, he suddenly stood out from the rest of Malaysia's other religious sects - the government currently estimates there are 22 - when he built his unusual monuments nine years ago.
They were inspired by one follower's alleged visions in which god was seen to sprinkle blessings on earth via a large teapot. The umbrella signifies that god shelters everyone regardless of their outward religion while the urn is constantly filled from the teapot and visitors to the commune are encouraged to drink "holy water" from it.
Four Sky Kingdom devotees who renounced Islam in 1998 were detained under Malaysia's repressive Internal Security Act for two years without trial for apostasy. Two years later the state government, which had been won in 1999 by the opposition Pan-Malaysia Islamic party (Pas), tried to shut down the sect on the grounds that it was violating land use regulations. They failed, but Ayah Pin was jailed for 11 months for denigrating Islamic tenets and branded a danger to society.
Now, after a considerable hiatus, there has been the raid.
No one at the religious department in Terengganu was willing to discuss the case when contacted by Guardian Unlimited. Local media have quoted officials as justifying the raid on the grounds of the sect's alleged deviancy, but no one has explained the "why now" and "why in this manner" questions.
Haris Muhamad Ibrahim, a lawyer who represented the four detained in 1998 and expects to appear for those arrested at the weekend, believes there is a political motive, considering the ruling United Malays National Organisation (Umno) won back Terengganu at last year's election.
"Perhaps Umno sees it as an opportunity to do what Pas couldn't do," he told Guardian Unlimited. "I think the authorities saw Ayah Pin as a threat to Malay hegemony."
This refers to apparent contradictions in Malay law, under which the constitution guarantees freedom of religion but stipulates that all ethnic Malays, which make up 60% of the 26 million population, have to follow Islam.
It also explains why the sect was not shut down, according to Mr Haris. "The sharia officials only have jurisdiction over the Muslims," he said. "They therefore could not do anything against the Christians, Buddhists or Hindus who live there."
But analysts say there are bigger issues at stake.
"Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi wants to be seen as an Islamic moderate so he doesn't want to be seen as clamping down too hard," one western diplomat in the capital Kuala Lumpur said. "But at the same time he can't afford to let the Malay base even appear to be getting out of control. Hence this somewhat half-baked approach to the Sky Kingdom."
Mr Haris cannot explain why Ayah Pin remains at liberty, particularly as the Star newspaper today printed a lengthy front-page interview with the sect leader in which he boasted he was present at the time of the raid.
"I saw them coming; they did not see me. Can I be faulted for this?" he was quoted by the newspaper as saying. "I won't run away as I have to look after my family [he has four wives] and children, as well as the car."
"Perhaps the authorities will arrest him soon," Mr Haris said. "I think this drama has a long way to run yet."