REPORTER: David O’Shea
This amateur video is all that remains of a religious wonderland called the Sky Kingdom. In its heyday it attracted thousands of followers. They dug a well which pumped holy water into this ornate giant teapot, which in turn poured into a giant vase. They built this huge umbrella to offer shelter beneath God. Now it's all gone, smashed to pieces by Malaysian authorities.
KAMARIAH ALI, (Translation): This circle was the well where it used to be. And the water in it could cure any disease.
Kamariah Ali and the other followers worked day and night from 1994 to build the Sky Kingdom. They were following a plan that they said came from the sky.
KAMARIAH ALI, (Translation): Water from the well flowed into here. Then it came out from the spout of the teapot into the vase.
REPORTER, (Translation): Like a waterfall?
KAMARIAH ALI, (Translation): Yes, like a waterfall.
REPORTER, (Translation): And the umbrella?
KAMARIAH ALI, (Translation): The umbrella was there.
RANUIZI RAZALI, (Translation): It was circular, about 20 feet in diameter. And the umbrella was about 23 feet high. It was yellow, golden yellow.
They also built a boat representing Noah's ark and a crescent moon as a symbol for agnostics. And amongst all these giant objects they built different buildings for their ceremonies. Visitors thronged here seeking guidance from the Sky Kingdom's renowned spiritual leader – this man, 62-year-old Ayah Pin. He claims to be a reincarnation of holy figures from Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam.
AYAH PIN (Translation): I am representing the ministers of the sky kingdom, to unite... to unite humankind, regardless of race or religion.
Ayah Pin's grandiose vision is set out in the Sky Kingdom's promotional video. And while he might look pretty normal to us in his tennis whites, to his followers Ayah Pin has special abilities. He can become invisible and even kill a man using thought power alone. The Sky Kingdom's followers still watch these videos in private, even though possessing these DVDs is illegal. Kamariah herself is facing a prison sentence and visitors are now rare.
KAMARIAH ALI, (Translation): Before it was demolished people could come. Afterwards they couldn't come. Only brave people come. People have to pluck up their courage to come here. People who can't, don't make it.
Ruzaini is a former drug addict and disciple of Ayah Pin.
RANUIZI RAZALI, (Translation): I met Ayah Pin in the sky. I was praying and entered into another realm, the hereafter, the realm beyond. I passed through Medina and went to Mecca. I went up into the sky. And I met Ayah Pin in his palace. So Ayah Pin is God to me.
Everyone in this room is a believer. Mr Senik came to the Sky Kingdom because of a dream.
NIK PA IN AWANG SENIK (Translation): As I sat on the hill, I saw Ayah Pin. His feet were at the bottom of the hill. And then, I was on top of the hill and I had to look up. He was even taller than the hill. This showed his superiority, his greatness, his stature. Ayah Pin.
At his peak, Ayah Pin claimed to have 1,000 followers in Malaysia and another 10,000 abroad. And building giant teapots wasn't the only thing they were doing that was new for Malaysia. Ayah Pin was reaching out to other religions in interfaith prayer sessions, like here to Hindus. He even organised an interfaith fellowship with indigenous Christian tribesmen from Malaysian Borneo - a radical move in a country where indigenous tribes are often sidelined. He hosted parties at the Sky Kingdom that went on late into the night. But the east coast of Malaysia is a conservative Muslim place and local religious authorities didn't like what they were seeing. Ayah Pin was jailed for 11 months for apostasy - the crime of rejecting the fundamental beliefs of Islam - and the Sky Kingdom was declared a deviant religious sect. Three years ago the government ordered them to pull down the giant structures, but they refused, and on an early morning in July 2005 a mob of around 30 people wearing hoods came to visit.
KAMARIAH’S DAUGHTER (Translation): I didn't believe it. We usually only see that sort of thing on the TV. So when it happened to us, we were terrified.
For 20 minutes the mob went on a rampage, throwing Molotov cocktails and threatening lives. They burned Ayah Pin's car and smashed some of the structures and there was no way the villagers could even call for help.
KAMARIAH’S DAUGHTER (Translation): We couldn't call the police. The phone line... Had been cut. The electricity... The power line had been cut. The next day I went to the police station at around 7 or 8. I reported it.
But instead of looking for the assailants, the police arrested her along with 47 other disciples. They were charged with violating a fatwah – or religious edict – which banned contact with their leader, Ayah Pin. Government bulldozers set to work and demolished the entire site.
HARIS IBRAHIM, HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER: I was so angry when I saw the rubble and it was the same villagers who came and calmed me down and said, "Haris, these are only structures, this is not life," and this is what got to me.
Human rights lawyer Haris Ibrahim has been representing the commune since 2000. He says Ayah Pin is no threat to anyone.
HARIS IBRAHIM: He has got some ideas about life that I don't necessarily agree with but I think I find it, like the rest of the villagers, harmless.
Haris believes the Sky Kingdom's followers are being unfairly persecuted despite Malaysia's guarantees of religious freedom.
HARIS IBRAHIM: It violates Article 11 of the federal constitution which guarantees the right to each of us the right to choose to practice and to profess, that's from a constitutional law perspective but also as someone who believes in Islam, Islam does not countenance this sort of hardship impacted on individuals. It is a matter of choice between man and his maker.
If there is anyone who knows this hardship well it's Kamariah Ali. During a long, futile struggle, she's had four stints in jail over the years, and each time the authorities have tried to make her repent.
KAMARIAH ALI, (Translation): They told me to pray, but I didn't. I also refused to recite the Muslim confession of faith. I stuck to my principles. I surrender and depend only on God.
Although she was born a Muslim, Kamariah has repeatedly tried to officially renounce Islam. But the authorities keep sending her back to Islamic sharia courts, where she is found guilty of deviant practices like worshipping Ayah Pin and renouncing Islam.
SA’ADIAH DIN, LAWYER: In Kamariah's case she has been fighting, I think, almost two decades.
Sa'adiah Din is another lawyer Kamariah has collected along the way. She's appealing the court decision in February this year which once again convicted Kamariah of apostasy and sentenced her to two years in jail.
SA'ADIAH DIN: It is not Islamic to send people to prison because they practice another religion. It is very un-Islamic to do that. This law will be abused if people don't like your face and the way you read some verses in the Koran slightly different from the rest of the world, people will just send you to jail for that.
The Sky Kingdom's followers are still performing their rituals, but with Islamists gaining power in Malaysia, some say a national dialogue is needed to resolve these issues.
HARIS IBRAHIM: The Islamists must be prepared to share with us what is their aspiration in the system that they hope to establish and perhaps on the part of the secularists in this country they too must perhaps begin to explain what 'secular system' means to them. And perhaps these processes may begin to allow for some justice to begin to be seen in these cases. That's certainly the hope that I have.
For the small group of Ayah Pin's followers that remain, even the destruction of all they had built at the Sky Kingdom has only served to strengthen their belief.
MOHAMMAD BIN ISMAIL, (Translation): Now what we have... is direct rule from heaven. Direct from heaven. That's new.
Three days into the demolition job, the bulldozer broke down and the government was unable to destroy the steps from which Ayah Pin used to deliver his sermons. Ruzaini is sure it was divine intervention.
RANUIZI RAZALI, (Translation): The excavator arm broke. And this is still here as proof that Ayah Pin exists. It's proof.
Credits
Reporter/Camera
DAVID O’SHEA
Editor
DAVID POTTS
Producer
AARON THOMAS
Fixer
NAGARAJAN S
Subtitling
NIC ARIF NAZLAN
Original Music composed by
VICKI HANSEN