The Al Arqam sect was started by an Islamic leader named Ashaari Mohamad. The government of Malaysia had banned the group back in 1994 calling them a heretical and deviant cult.
According to reports, psychologists had said that Captain Zaharie Ahmad was "self-destructive" after his creepy Facebook messages to young Instagram model twins surfaced.
A Malaysian man petitioned the Kuala Lumpur HC in Malaysia to renounce Islam and return to Christianity, his original faith, after divorcing his Muslim wife, but his appeal was rejected
"This latest attempt to legitimize China's purported sovereignty and jurisdiction over Philippine features and maritime zones has no basis under international law, particularly the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)," a statement by the Philippines government read.