Al-Ma'unah is an Islamic sect and spiritual militant group based in

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. The group was made famous by their audacious raid on 2 July 2000 on a camp of Malaysian Army Reserve mobilised in the early hours of the morning and stealing weapons from the armory. The group was later cornered in the village of Sauk,

Kuala Kangsar Kuala Kangsar (Perak Malay: ) is the royal town of Perak, Malaysia. It is located at the downstream of Kangsar River where it joins the Perak River, approximately northwest of Ipoh, Perak's capital, and southeast of George Town, Penang, Ge ...

Perak Perak (; Perak Malay: ''Peghok'') is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. Perak has land borders with the Malaysian states of Kedah to the north, Penang to the northwest, Kel ...

and was involved in a stand-off the against the

Malaysian Army The Malaysian Army (; Jawi alphabet, Jawi: ) is the land component of the Malaysian Armed Forces. Steeped in British Army traditions, the Malaysian Army does not carry the title ‘royal’ () as do the Royal Malaysian Navy and the Royal Malaysi ...

and Royal Malaysian Police forces. The stand-off, known as the Sauk Siege, ended when

n security forces, including the army 22nd Grup Gerak Khas (22nd GGK) and police VAT 69 Pasukan Gerakan Khas, stormed the camp in Operation Dawn.

Description

The group's full name was ''Persaudaraan Ilmu Dalam Al-Ma’unah'' (''Brotherhood of Inner Power'') or Al-Ma'unah in short. The group had a website which explained that Al-Ma'unah was an organisation "involved in the teaching of martial arts particularly the development of one’s inner power and the practice of Islamic traditional medicine". The term "Ma’unah" supposedly means something extraordinary (paranormal) that happens to an ordinary Muslim individual.Persaudaraan Ilmu Dalam al-Maunah (Malaysia)
The group claimed membership of 1000 ''Ikhwan'' spread throughout Malaysia,

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

, Singapore,

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

. Their motto is ''Berilmu, Beramal, Beriman, Bertaqwa'' or in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: ''العليم والمؤمن والخيري والتقوى''. The motto symbolises their supreme power over the Muslim brotherhood throughout the country and their spirit to defend Islam. Nowadays, it is usually found at the religious school mottos. The sect has been identified as part of the

Salafi Movement The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a fundamentalist revival movement within Sunni Islam, originating in the late 19th century and influential in the Islamic world to this day. The name "''Salafiyya''" is a self-designation, claiming a retu ...

Impact

Social impact

Al-Ma'unah is characterised as a

sect A sect is a subgroup of a religion, religious, politics, political, or philosophy, philosophical belief system, typically emerging as an offshoot of a larger organization. Originally, the term referred specifically to religious groups that had s ...

by the Malaysian authorities and not as a rebel or terrorist group like Jemaah Islamiah. But for all the slickness of the two arms heists, the group's previous actions amounted to taking a few pot-shots at a

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

temple at Batu Caves, breweries on the outskirts of

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

, and a power company's electric tower. The Al-Ma'unah case is regarded as an isolated episode in Malaysia. The leader of the group, Mohamed Amin, was a former army private but also arrested among the 26 in the Sauk

siege A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...

included a Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) major, an analyst, an insurance agent, a Malaysia France Institute lecturer and an executive with

Proton A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , Hydron (chemistry), H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' (elementary charge). Its mass is slightly less than the mass of a neutron and approximately times the mass of an e ...

. "It shows that how religion is used and manipulated is still a real problem in Malaysia," says Kamarulnizam Abdullah, coordinator of the Strategic and Security Studies Unit at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia). "The government has to do something". The Malaysian authorities clamped down hard on deviation activities as a result of the Al Ma'unah tragedy. Police also tightened laws on the sale of police and military uniforms. Those who wanted to trade and produce police and military uniforms and insignias would need a police permit, a condition introduced following the Al-Maunah incident.

Political impact

Some people believed that the Sauk incident was stage managed by the

Government of Malaysia The Government of Malaysia, officially the Federal Government of Malaysia (; Jawi script, Jawi: ), is based in the Federal Territories of Malaysia, Federal Territory of Putrajaya, with the exception of the legislative branch, which is located in ...

under then Prime Minister

Mahathir Mohamad Mahathir bin Mohamad (; ; born 10 July 1925) is a Malaysian politician, author and doctor who was respectively the fourth and seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia, prime minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003 and from 2018 to 2020. He was the ...

. This belief was because of the apparent ease that the Al Ma'unah Group talked their way through the army guards into allowing them into the camp and seizing the arms and ammunition. This ease projected a "shocking laxity in military discipline and security whereby vast cache of high-calibre weaponry could be robbed from two military camps, as it involves an unacceptable degree of military irresponsibility and negligence", according to then opposition leader

Lim Kit Siang Lim Kit Siang (; born 20 February 1941) is a retired Malaysian politician. Having held the position for a total of 29 years on three separate occasions, he is the longest-serving leader of the opposition, as well the second longest-serving m ...

. Kit Siang also questioned the death of the third person, Abdul Halim Ali, one of the gang members. The

Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party The Malaysian Islamic Party, also known as the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party ( Malay: ''Parti Islam Se-Malaysia''; abbrev: PAS), is an Islamist political party in Malaysia. Ideologically focused on Islamic fundamentalism and Malay dominanc ...

(PAS) also through its Secretary-General, Nasharudin Mat Isa, reiterated their belief while refusing to apologise for the accusation of the

United Malays National Organisation The United Malays National Organisation (Abbreviation, abbrev: UMNO; , PEKEMBAR) is a Conservatism, conservative, Nationalism, Malay nationalist political party in Malaysia. As the oldest national political party in the country (since its ince ...

(UMNO) for stage managing the tragedy. Lim Kit Siang also questioned the Government's action in using ''the Internal Security Act to detain the 27 Al-Ma’unah members arrested at Bukit Jenalik on 6 July 2000 after the five-day arms heists and hostage taking and killings instead of charging them for robbery,

kidnapping Kidnapping or abduction is the unlawful abduction and confinement of a person against their will, and is a crime in many jurisdictions. Kidnapping may be accomplished by use of force or fear, or a victim may be enticed into confinement by frau ...

, firearms and murder is a major and multiple blow to the reputation and credibility of the Police, the

Attorney-General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Prime Minister as its smacks of a “cover-up” operation and will undermine public confidence in the

White Paper A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. Since the 199 ...

on the Al-Ma’unah arms heists and atrocities.''Homepage for Lim Kit Siang
The Al Ma'unah group was later charged under Section 121 of the

Penal Code A criminal code or penal code is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of, a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain Crime, offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that ...

, conviction under which carries with it two penalties in the alternative, death or

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

, and a third sentence that if the death penalty is not pronounced, a convicted person shall also be liable to a fine.

References

* ''Maunah, the Naked Truth'' by Zabidi Razali
Court of Appeal judgement

Footnotes