A Pogrom for tea.

• Author: Howley, Kerry
• Position: Sky Kingdom, religious cult, Malaysia - Brief Article

To WESTERNERS, this teapot will seem more Lewis Carroll than David Koresh. But in the Malaysian state of Terengganu, where the two-story pot once sat beside a fishing boat, a massive vase, and an even larger yellow umbrella, the structure has become a symbol of religious strife. Ayah Pin, who founded this "Sky Kingdom," has spent the last two decades building a religious community around the teapot. The members of his interfaith cult are welcome to follow any religion they choose, he says, as long as they recognize that he is the God at the head of all of them. "All religions are basically the same," he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

The Malaysian authorities don't see it that way. Ayah Pin...