The place looked unoccupied. It was located on the fourth floor of a modest apartment building, near the campus of the University Islamic School, at Gombak, on the outskirts of the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. Repeated ringing of the bell brought no one to the door of apartment number seven. “No one there, the tenants are in Singapore,” said a cleaner, with a thick Malay accent.

The tenant, Ibu Zaidah, along with her three smal