Worshipping a giant teapot and claiming to be god in the unforgiving heartland of fundamentalist Islam is like waving a red banner at a bull.
You invite retaliation.
For nearly 25 years, Ariffin Mohammed, 65, a Muslim Malay better known as Ayah Pin or Father Pin, has been harassed, arrested and even jailed to force him to recant his 'Sky Kingdom' faith and return to the true path of Sunni Islam.
He refused and finally, on Sunday, matters came to a head. Islamic clerics and police marched into the commune in Batu 13 village, in peninsular Malaysia's eastern Terengganu state, accompanied by bulldozers, arrested followers and tore down buildings, bringing down the curtain on a sometimes laughable but still unique interfaith commune.
'He had to be stopped,' said Abdul Hamid Othman, head of Islamic affairs in Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's office. 'He violated the sanctity of Islam and his teachings were a threat to national security.' But human rights activists condemned the action as a serious violation of fundamental liberty.
'They are innocent people who have been brutally attacked and traumatised,' said Elizabeth Wong, secretary-general of the Malaysian Human Rights Association. 'They have not broken any laws.'