A virtuous business, which has managed to combine Islamic precepts and entrepreneurship, or a sect with deviant practices that, under the cover of community life, subverts family ties between parents and children to exploit both? Authorities in Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim country, are increasingly leaning towards the second option, as the investigation into Global Ikhwan Services and Business Holdings (GISB) advances, a group inherited from a banned Islamic movement called Al-Arqam years ago in Malaysia, suspected of physical and psychological abuse of hundreds of children.
Malaysian police carried out new searches on September 21 in a hundred “foster homes” The group was linked to the group and was intended to house the children of its members, but also those left behind and orphans. This fourth raid since the beginning of the month brings the number of alleged victims to more than 400, all children and adolescents, boys and girls, between the ages of 2 and 17. Some of those already examined by doctors after the raid on September 11 were autistic or disabled, but were not followed up. At least 13 teenagers had been sexually assaulted.
More than 350 people have already been arrested from the management of these shelters, but also from other establishments linked to the group, such as clinics. This group of more than 5,000 “employee members” also includes countless catering and halal food production companies. On September 20, 19 members of the GISB management, including its CEO, Nasiruddin Ali, were taken into custody for investigation. The police also announced that they had found books and documents in their home that proselytized in favor of the banned sect.
The cases of ill-treatment, uncovered after six months of investigation following reports and revelations on social media, are causing a stir in Malaysia, where the monarch, Sultan Ibrahim Ismaïl, left his reserve on September 17 to call on the police to carry out a “comprehensive research” about the crimes committed. The complainants allege a vast system of abuse and exploitation that illustrates the failures of child protection in Malaysia.
“Isolated from the world”
“In this very particular company, employees live in separate houses, men on one side and women on the other. They are no longer able to raise their children from the age of two. They are placed in the group’s orphanages. They are not educated. They live isolated from the world.”explains an activist and whistleblower contacted by The world who wishes to remain anonymous when speaking to the foreign press. A way to indoctrinate them, according to her: “GISB claims to have permission to set its own curriculum, did it really obtain it legitimately?”, She continues. Having helped for the first time, in 2019, a Singaporean woman who wanted to escape with her nine children from the influence of GISB and an abusive husband, son of senior managers of the group, she helps witnesses in the ongoing legal proceedings. minutes.
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