PETALING JAYA: The issue of GISBH-linked charity homes is bigger than just the issue of abused children as it may pose a danger to the country's security, says Perlis Mufti Datuk Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin.
He pointed out that the GISBH community has always lived independently, detached from normal Malaysian society.
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He said that the government now has to create a plan to rehabilitate the children taken from charity homes linked to Global Ikhwan Services and Business Holdings (GISBH), as well as the parents who put them there.
Mohd Asri was referring to the recent police raid on 20 premises linked to GISBH, which saw 402 minors rescued and 171 arrested.
"We are talking of a whole excommunicated community who have lived their lives away from normal Malaysians for so long they are only loyal to their leaders," said Mohd Asri on Friday (Sept 13).
He explained that the indoctrination of GISBH members did not just happen overnight but for a long time.
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"For the children taken by the police, they had been brainwashed since they were born.
“In communities where the leader reigns supreme, for those born inside these communities, this is all the world they know and believe
"Even if a cult's members were placed under rehabilitation, one must remember that in such a group in which the leaders reigned supreme, for those born in the group, this is all the world they knew and believed in.
"Taking them out of that world is not easy as they will need even to be re-educated as Malaysians - for their belief is in the return of their leaders as the Mahdi prophet, the formation of a state of their own and their complete loyalty to their spiritual leaders.
On Wednesday (Sept 11), the Inspector General of Police, Tan Sri Razaruddin Husain, said that it has yet to be ascertained whether the children, who were allegedly abused and some sexually groomed, had ever attended school.
The rescued children are housed at the Police Training Centre (Pulapol), where they are interviewed and documented.
Razarudin also said that the police are collaborating with the Welfare Department to offer counselling and emotional support to the children.
