Your report of a mob taking the law into their own hands to attempt to destroy the deviant Ayah Pin commune is most disturbing. It reminds me of an incident way back in the 70s when a group of Islamic militants stormed an Indian temple in Kerling, Selangor and a number of people were killed and injured.

Another incident, which will jog your memory, is the attack on a police stations in 1980 during which scores of deviant teaching followers and their leaders were killed while police personnel manning the station were injured

As a Muslim, I do not have sympathy for deviant groups which are responsible for apostasy among Muslims. But to take law into your own hands to stop the deviant groups from spreading their wings is wrong.

To be fair to Ayah Pin, he is not the only charlatan who has managed to mesmerise and hoodwink his followers into following his 'way of living'. Others deviant religious leaders before him have proclaimed themselves to be the last prophets or God and they also had ardent followers who worshiped the ground their 'guru' walked on.

The authorities should not wait more attacks to occur and should be proactive in preventing this black incident from recurring as it will mar the image of our nation if people think that we are an intolerant society that cannot handle a simple case of deviant teaching without restoring to violence.

The Ayah Pin commune has hoards of ardent supporters - including Caucasians - of many faiths believing in his cause and this black incident will mar our image in the eyes of foreigners.

If the government can use the law against the leader of Al-aqram group (as in the past) and even ban the movement, the same thing should be done to Ayah Pin to stop this deviant group from tricking ignorant followers into becoming member of the commune.

The leaders of the mob who took the law in their own hands to attempt to destroy the commune should also face the music for their crime.

It is really sad to see that with all the facilities made available by the government for Muslims to practice their own faith correctly, there are still ignorant Muslims who want to practice their own brands of Islamic practice with their own Tok Guru, a practice contrary to the Islamic principles adhered to by the majority of Muslims here.

But militancy and mob rule in any faith, too, will not augur well for nation-building.