Twenty-one members of a religious sect in Terengganu have been arrested for allegedly possessing documents contrary to Islam, an official said on Sunday.

Muhammad Ramli Nuh, deputy chairman of Terengganu state Islamic development committee, said 14 men and seven women aged between 30 and 60 were detained.

He said the seven-hour operation began late Saturday and was carried out by religious and regular police officers.

Among those arrested were a police officer, a member of a popular local rock group and the fourth wife of the sect leader who managed to evade arrest, the official Bernama news agency reported.

The remote commune is led by a 65-year-old illiterate Malay man, Ariffin Mohammad, better known as Ayah Pin (pix), who claims he is God. The village is popular among Muslims, Chinese and Indians and foreign tourists who visit to discuss various issues with Ayah Pin on weekends. Ayah Pin was not arrested as he was not there during the raid.

The sect has had run-ins with the authorities in the past, with four members being jailed for two years in 1998 for attempting to renounce Islam.

Muhammad Ramli said they would be charged under the Syariah Criminal Offences Act and if found guilty could be fined and jailed up to two years.

The were later released on bail of RM1,000 and would appear before a local Islamic court on September 23, he said.

Unusual structures

In April the local land office ordered the community to destroy unusual structures it had built over the years - including a "teapot" which stands several metres high, a giant vase and an umbrella-like tower - by May 28. It said they breached national regulations.

"We will not comply with the order," a spokesman for the Ayah Pin cult, Rosli Abdul Samad, 37, told AFP. "We have done no wrong. We promote peace and unity for all races. We are not militants."

The structures are designed to promote unity among all religions, he said, accusing local Islamic leaders of attempting to contain the teachings of Ayah Pin by ordering their destruction.

The issue of religion in mainly Muslim Malaysia is sensitive, especially when Muslims allegedly renounce Islam. The government is always on the lookout for what it calls deviant sects.

The opposition fundamentalist Islamic party PAS, which ruled Terengganu state until last year, attempted to shut down the village in 2000. But Ayah Pin's followers obtained a court order to keep it running.