daddy of the sky kingdom

the latest hotest news now is on the raid of ‘sky kingdom’ a so called cult run by a man called ariffin mohamand, better known as ayah pin. (note: ayah means father in malay).

now i’m quite intrigued by this man ayah pin so i did a google search on him and found lots of interesting sites, including many blogs talking about him and his ‘sky kingdom’. a good one is the ‘religion news’ blog’, where, basically it collects news items on ayah pin and posted them up. you can find several articles related to ayah pin/sky kingdom, the oldest, dated 16 october 2004.

“The six-acre commune of ‘sky kingdom’, dominated by a building about the size of a two-story house, shaped like a giant pink teapot. Next to it is an umbrella shaped building and an assortment of other objects, such as a fishing boat and an oversized vase containing “holy” water.”
text taken from relgionnews no. 11284. picture taken from the star.

the sky kingdom is an inter-faith sect which claims to promote harmony between all of malaysia’s religious groups.

according to ayah pin, his teachings in the commune is based on universal unity, and he’s here to unite people of the world regardless of religion. there is only one god, he said and we all pray to the same god. that’s why he allowed his followers to follow whatever religion they want to.

now why do the authorities want to arrest him and shut down his cult? he is a deviationist, so said the authorities, and according to the star paper, he took part in unislamic rituals. and what all these so called unislamic rituals?

According to sources, some of the scenes show Ayah Pin and his followers visiting a Hindu temple in Selangor and being garlanded by priests.
“It showed vibuthi (holy ash) being applied across his forehead and devotees were seen praying to him and washing his feet with yellow water,” said a source.
There are also scenes of him visiting Bali and meeting up with Hindu devotees and priests in the island.
He was also seen meeting with Christians at his commune in Kampung Batu 13 in Jerteh.

whoaa! these nice tolerant community actions are known as ‘unislamic’? what was so wrong about visiting a hindu temple? if you are not a hindu, and you visit a hindu temple, it shows tolerance. and of course in a hindu temple, you will be garlanded the hindu way and be dotted with the vibuthi. (why, i remember once when i attended a hindu wedding, i borrowed from my hindu friend some vibuthi to put on my forehead.) and this thing about meeting up with hindu devotees and christians… absolutely nothing wrong. in fact should be encouraged. i mean all religions should encourage visits to other religions. in fact by doing this, it would be more ‘islamic’ instead of unislamic.

many people on the net had voiced their support for ayah pin. maobi said:
“Those who howl for this man’s blood seem to be using religion to try and make others conform to their views of the world. Many have tried it before and some others have used weapons, force or ideologies. All have eventually collapsed.”

a commenter in jeff ooi’s blog said:
“He should be awarded the National Peace Prize for achieving communal harmony where bigger guns have failed and created disharmony instead.What crime exactly has he committed in the name of humanity?”

and as i said in the beginning, doing a search for ayah pin will yield lots of results.

ong had a good post on this topic here, and shinshin had put up an interview of ayah pin by the edge here.

i don’t know… i’m quite confused on this ayah pin issue. his idealogy sounds good and i would have support him 100%… IF he had not claim himself to be god.