Ariffin Mohammad, or more fondly known as Ayah Pin to thousands of followers of his self-styled spiritual leadership, is not in the least perturbed over the government's recent censure of his activities.

A follower who declined to be named said Ayah Pin was at the village in Hulu Besut, Terengganu and was "very calm".

"He is not afraid and did not have much of a reaction to news of possible action against him. But he does not want to leave the village where he is resting now," she said when contacted today.

On Monday, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of religious affairs Abdullah Mohd Zin (pic left)said the threat posed by Ayah Pin to Muslims was comparable to that by al-Ma'unah and al-Arqam, two groups that have been linked to militancy.

Abdullah told reporters that the Internal Security Ministry was considering action against Ayah Pin after the Islamic Development Department found him to be a threat to Muslims in the country.

The follower said government and Umno sources have since confirmed that Ayah Pin is not on the Internal Security Ministry's blacklist for deviant teachings or practices.

What are offensive?

"This is not news to Ayah Pin because he has faced such threats before. This is only a propaganda by some people. We are now trying to find out more on what exactly is the problem," she said.

"We are trying to get more information on what exactly is he being investigated for. We want to know what has been found to be offensive.

"The Internal Security Ministry would know everything that Ayah Pin does because they are regularly informed, either directly by our people or indirectly from other sources."

She insisted that Ayah Pin posed no danger to the government "even from a religious viewpoint".

Ayah Pin's followers, she said, wanted to know if the government was rehashing old facts pertaining to the previous practice of wearing an all-white attire and loud chanting or singing.

In the late 1990s, the intervention by the Kelantan and Terengganu religious authorities had put a stop to these practices that are considered deviant from the true teachings of Islam.

Umno people are followers

The follower, employed in the private sector, said all of them were prepared for any eventuality even though their lawyer had told them there was nothing to fear.

She also said that many of Umno members were Ayah Pin followers or sympathisers.

"For instance, the Orang Asli in Johor are all Umno members. In fact, Umno leaders regularly follow our entourage into the villages for our activities."

The other problem plaguing the authorities are the sale of compact discs of Ayah Pin's visits to different locales.

"We only distribute them to our followers with strict instructions against selling them to the public. But free copies are given to the media to provide more information on our activities," she explained.

We even found some being sold openly for between RM30-RM60, much more than our price of RM10 per CD."

However, she said that they were unable to trace or stop people who duplicated Ayah Pin's CDs.