Malaysia’s civil court has refused a woman permission to leave Islam to avoid being jailed for apostasy.

She follows the Sky Kingdom sect, known as the teapot cult because it built a giant teapot to symbolise its belief in the healing purity of water.

At the height of his popularity, the self-styled Prophet had four wives and had a following of 21 followers, including a police inspector and a drummer of a rock group, all whom were arrested and are now on trial.

Known for his giant structures of a teapot, vase, umbrella, concrete boat and a “palace� at his commune, he had claimed God was human and his deviant teachings included not making Friday prayers compulsory.

In Malaysia, quitting Islam gets you a jail term.

An Islamic court in Malaysia refuses to allow a woman to reject Islam in favor of a religious cult.

A member of the Sky Kingdom sect, a quasi-religious movement persecuted by the Malaysian governmetn, who declared herself to be a non-Muslim in order to avoid a penalty, must appear before an Islamic court.

Not many people visit the site where the controversial deviationist sect Sky Kingdom once stood. The gleaming structures are all gone.

The Terengganu government has dismissed any possibility of the defunct Sky Kingdom cult being revived by one of its founder’s followers.

More than a year after 66-year-old cult leader Ayah Pin had gone into hiding, the Sky Kingdom is now believed to have a new and younger head.

KUALA TERENGGANU: A follower of cult leader Ariffin Mohamad, a.k.a ‘Ayah Pin’, had declared herself an apostate to escape punishment.

KOTA BARU: Cult leader Ariffin Mohamad or "Ayah Pin", now hiding in Narathiwat, southern Thailand, has not entered Malaysia for at least five months and is suffering from chronic diabetes.

JERTEH: The second mention of the case involving 18 followers of the Sky Kingdom sect took an unexpected turn at the Syariah Lower Court in Kampung Raja here.

KUALA TERENGGANU: A Sky Kingdom sect follower told a Syariah official last year that she had made a declaration renouncing Islam here in 1989.

JERTEH: The land on which a two-storey high teapot and a giant umbrella, all symbols of the Sky Kingdom sect, once stood majestically now resembled a wasteland.

KUALA TERENGGANU, Sun. - The Syariah Court was told today that Ariffin Mohamad a.k.a. "Ayah Pin", the leader of a deviant sect known as the "Sky Kingdom", was regarded as "God" by his followers.

PUTRAJAYA: An Ayah Pin follower has been granted leave by the Federal Court to challenge the validity of three provisions in two state enactments in Terengganu on the ground that the state legislative assembly (SLAT) had no power to enact them.