=== Scientology
1. Starbucks seen as welcome jolt to city

=== Buddhism
2. New Dalai Lama-China contacts
3. China refuses to confirm or deny new dialogue with Dalai Lama
4. Buddhist congregation grows in Macomb County
5. Court blocks tax-break challenge

=== Hinduism
6. Christians do not consider women to be human, says Hindu leader

=== Mungiki
7. Kenya: Muslim leaders among 24 charged with sect membership

=== Islam
8. Police release 82 city riot suspects
9. I Told Muslims To Fight, Says Nassir
10. Stamp To Honor Muslim Holidays 'Eid' Greeting Symbolic Breakthrough
For U.S. Religious Minority

=== Catholicism
11. Nun evicted from South End center for performing priest rites

=== Mormonism
12. Tribune sale - the truth
13. Mesa police officers accuse department of discrimination

» Part 2

=== Jehovah's Witnesses
14. Jehovah's Witnesses demand alternative service, get jail
15. Georgian customs ordered to release literature seized from
Jehovah's Witnesses

=== Witchcraft
16. Women killed in PNG for allegedly practising witchcraft
17. New South African law targets old fears of occult

=== Hate Groups
18. Police withdraw from Klan cross display
19. Online Tips to Fight Neo-Nazis
20. With the Web, Midwest minister of hate gains a global reach
21. Swastika Symbol Cut Down in Forest
22. German Escapes Charges Over 'Adolf' Furniture
23. No way out

» Part 3

=== Other News
24. Indian astrologer killed by annoyed clients over wrong predictions
25. Red tape may force Salvation Army to retreat from Moscow
26. Battle of Prayers / With Philippine president fighting impeachment, faith emerges as political weapon
27. 1,000 minds aim to think alike in a telepathy test
28. Papua New Guinea/USA: US religious TV station to begin broadcasting

=== Death Penalty / Human Rights Violations
29. Activists urge Clinton to suspend federal executions
30. 17 Americans executed for crimes committed as juveniles since 1973

=== Noted
31. Fears media controls are a stalking-horse
32. Scholars question media treatment of `other' religions
33. Rasta Homeland
34. Innovators. Time 100: The Next Wave

=== Books
35. Unofficial aid adds to Harry Potter cult

=== Scientology

1. Starbucks seen as welcome jolt to city
St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 5, 2000
http://www.sptimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
CLEARWATER -- Starbucks Coffee Co. sealed a deal Thursday to open a coffeehouse in downtown Clearwater by late next summer.

The 2,400-square-foot coffee shop will be on the southwest corner of Cleveland Street and Fort Harrison Avenue, after renovations are completed during a seven-month period.
(...)

''We thought Clearwater's downtown had a great atmosphere, a good daytime population and it was on the way to the beach,'' Schantz said.

Downtown merchants have been searching for just such a pick-me-up since city voters rejected a sweeping redevelopment plan this summer.

City officials hope the coffee vendor will perk up their marketing efforts to attract other retailers and restaurateurs to the city's historic main street. They said Starbucks is considered a leader that other national retailers sometimes follow.
(...)

Those who put the deal together say that it has been a bit of grind -- with nearly two years of discussions with Starbucks -- to lure the coffee chain downtown.

Keller said it couldn't have happened without the city, the Church of Scientology and Matrix Lodging working together.

Starbucks first became interested in Clearwater's downtown as a result of efforts by Scientology to attract them to open a shop in a Scientology facility here.

Starbucks ended up agreeing to supply Scientology's Fort Harrison Hotel with coffee, but the deal fell through to open a separate store downtown in a Scientology building on Cleveland Street.

The length of the proposed lease and concerns that protesters against the church might disrupt the shop were among the issues, said Tom DeVocht, who oversees the church's real estate and construction projects.

Scientology officials then encouraged the coffee chain to begin negotiating with Gerald Ellenburg, the CEO of Matrix, to open their shop in Matrix's building nearby. The city helped make the pitch to the coffee chain.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

» Occupied Clearwater
Exposing the criminal cult of Scientology in the Tampa Bay area

Good place to start: the site's FAQ

=== Buddhism

2. New Dalai Lama-China contacts
BBC, Dec. 4, 2000
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, says he has reopened contacts with the Chinese Government, which have been frozen since the early 1990s.

He told journalists his elder brother, Gyalo Thondup, had visited Beijing in late October and had brought a message back.

The Dalai Lama said he had now formally proposed sending a delegation to Beijing, and was awaiting a response.
(...)

A BBC correspondent there, Mike Wooldridge, says the 65-year-old spiritual leader is being cautious about portraying the renewed contact as a breakthrough.

Formal contact between the Dalai Lama and Beijing was cut in 1993, but informal links continued until two years ago. Gyalo Thondup was a key figure in the search for a negotiated settlement in the 1980s.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


3. China refuses to confirm or deny new dialogue with Dalai Lama
AFP, Dece. 5, 2000
http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
China on Tuesday declined to confirm or deny if it had resumed a dialogue with exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama after a two-year freeze.

But while refusing to comment on the Dalai Lama's statement Monday that his elder brother made a secret visit to Beijing, China reiterated its stance that channels of communication between the sides were available.
(...)

The Dalai Lama on Monday said it was ''too early to say'' if the dialogue might lead to a Chinese change of heart, and the Chinese foreign ministry on Tuesday gave no indication of any reversal of policy on Tibet.

Chinese spokeswoman Zhang reiterated that in order for the Dalai Lama to enter into negotiations with China, he must ''truly give up Tibetan independence, stop activities aiming at splitting China and openly declare that Tibet is an inalienable part of Chinese territory.''

He must also declare that Taiwan is part of China and that the government in Beijing is the sole legitimate government of all China, Zhang said.

''If the Dalai Lama can accept all these conditions, then the central government is willing to have contact with him and negotiations with him,'' she said.

Despite the Dalai Lama's repeated assertions that he is not seeking independence for Tibet, he is repeatedly vilified by Chinese officials in vitriolic language as devious and insincere separatist.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 following a failed uprising against Chinese rule, and set up a government-in-exile in the northern Indian hill station of Dharamsala.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


4. Buddhist congregation grows in Macomb County
The Detroit News, Dec. 5, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
CLINTON TOWNSHIP -- Except for the giant statue in the front yard, Macomb County's only Buddhist temple is as unassuming as it gets.

Located between a McDonald's restaurant and a row of ranch homes in a mostly Catholic neighborhood in Clinton Township, the Linh Son Tu house of worship blends in remarkably well. And the Buddhism promoted by a monk and his protege is attracting up to 400 people to the Utica Road temple on its busiest days.
(...)

While world interest in Buddhism is huge, it's barely a blip on the religious radar screen in Metro Detroit. Professor S.J. Staudenmaier, a spiritual director at the University of Detroit Mercy, said conditions are ripe for a change.
(...)

Other communities with Buddhist temples include Howell, Berkley and Southfield. With interest growing, plans are to build a larger temple in Clinton Township.

The Clinton Township temple has more than 100 regulars, mostly Asian Americans with roots in Vietnam or China. It also is a magnet for curiosity-seeking Westerners.
(...)

Although American Buddhists number only in the hundreds of thousands, there are several hundred million worldwide, making it the fourth-largest global religion behind Christianity, Islam and Hinduism, said John Saliba, professor of religious studies at UDM.

There are five rules Buddhists follow: Don't kill, don't steal, don't get high on drugs or alcohol, don't lie and don't have unmarried sex.

''It's about establishing a foundation for your life,'' said Minh- Thong, a former salesman from Roseville who's training to be a monk.

''We teach getting rid of greed, anger, delusion and ignorance. We don't worship gods or deities. Buddhism gives us focus and clears our minds.''

Priests adhere to 250 rules including abstaining from sex, having bank accounts or owning property.
(...)

The greatest misconception of Buddhism, contends Bill Risher's wife, is that it's part of a cult.

''It isn't,'' said Nancy Risher, a lifelong Buddhist from Thailand. ''No one is brainwashed. We're here to learn good things.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


5. Court blocks tax-break challenge
Times Union, Dec. 4, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/pages/newsreal/Story.nsp?story_id=16267637&ID=newsreal&scategory=Internet
[Story no longer online? Read this]
ALBANY -- New York's top court Thursday blocked a challenge to a property tax exemption for a Buddhist sect in Nassau County in a ruling praised by not-for-profit groups.

The Court of Appeals said unanimously that people living near the Buddhist property in the village of Old Westbury do not have legal standing to contest the exemption because they cannot show they were damaged by it beyond having to pay slightly higher property taxes.

Citing an 1893 ruling by the Court of Appeals, Judge Howard Levine wrote Thursday that a taxpayer whose only complaint is that ''he was taxed too much, because other property was omitted from the rolls'' has ''no legal recourse'' to challenge a property tax exemption granted to another taxpayer.

Giving disgruntled taxpayers a right to sue would create chaotic situations where tax collections would be uncertain and litigation could drag on endlessly while governments went without necessary funds, Levine said.

The tax exemption was granted to the Yun Lin Temple in Old Westbury in 1996 by the Nassau County Board of Assessors. The California-based sect bought 8 acres of the former W.R. Grace estate along the Long Island Expressway. The property includes a mansion and a tennis court.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Hinduism

6. Christians do not consider women to be human, says Hindu leader
AFP, Dec. 5, 2000
http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The chief of India's most powerful Hindu right-wing organisation Tuesday alleged that Christians did not consier women to be human.

K. Sudarshan, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, National Volunteer Corps), which has close links with Prime Minister Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist party, made the attack at a women's function here.

''Christians did not even consider women as human beings. Saint Peter had even stated that creation of women was not there in God's original plan. It was an afterthought,'' Sudarshan said.

''As woman was created out of the first man (Adam's) rib, they were treated as something in between man and animal,'' the RSS chief claimed.

The ''confusion,'' he said, led to widespread debate in the sixth and seventh centuries over the status of woman and only in the 18th century 95 bishops finally decided to treat Christian women as ''human'' and women of other religions as animals.
(...)

''Only in 1930 did the British Privy Council accept women as a person whereas we in India treated them as goddesses. Man and woman are complementary to each other in this country,'' he said.

Sudarshan's views are not representative of the general Hindu mindset in India. He had earlier stirred controversy by demanding a ''national'' Indian church on the lines of the Anglican church.

The RSS, together with right-wing Hindu groups, has spearheaded a movement against foreign Christian missionaries in India, accusing them of forcibly converting impoverished rural Hindus.

Founded in 1925, it is India's oldest Hindu nationalist group and advocates the creation of a theocratic state. It has been outlawed three times since India's independence in 1947.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Mungiki

7. Kenya: Muslim leaders among 24 charged with sect membership
BBC Monitoring, Dec. 5, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Excerpt from report by Kenyan newspaper `Daily Nation' on 5th December
Twenty-four people, including two Muslim sheikhs, were yesterday charged with belonging to the Mungiki sect.

The two religious leaders, Mr Abdullah Omar Abdallah and Abdi Ali Ibrahim, and 22 others appeared before a Nanyuki court accused of belonging to an unlawful society.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Islam

8. Police release 82 city riot suspects
Daily Nation (Kenya), Dec. 5, 2000
http://www.nationaudio.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
All the 82 suspects seized over the violence that rocked a city estate were freed from police custody yesterday.

Police sources said they were released ''due to political and religious considerations.''

The senior police source added: ''The matter is very sensitive and that is why it was decided that the suspects be freed. I cannot disclose who made the decision.''
(...)

They had been arrested last Thursday and Friday after youths and traders fought over a plot in the South B estate occupied by both a mosque and a number of kiosks belonging to the traders. Each side claims ownership of the plot.

The violence left one person dead and hundreds of others injured, and the mosque, two Protestant churches, a Catholic church, kiosks and a popular entertainment centre burnt to the ground.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


9. I Told Muslims To Fight, Says Nassir
Daily Nation (Kenya), Dec. 4, 2000
http://www.nationaudio.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Combative Cabinet minister Shariff Nassir confirmed yesterday that he told Muslim youths not to turn the other cheek but to hit back when attacked.

He spoke as appeals for calm helped to restore peace in the South B area of Nairobi where two days of violence left one person dead and hundreds of others injured, and a mosque, two Protestant churches, a Catholic church, kiosks and a popular entertainment centre burnt to the ground,

Eighty-two people were arrested following the rioting, which was sparked off by a dispute over a plot, whose ownership is claimed by both the Muslim community and local traders who built kiosks on the land.

Mr. Nassir, who visited the scene of violence on Friday along with other leaders, said yesterday: ''Yes, I told the Muslim youth to hit back with greater force if they are provoked because I am a leader who is ready to sacrifice myself for my people and I do not like cowards''.

He added: ''If someone hits you on the cheek, you hit him even harder.''
(...)

Addressing a Press conference at his home in Mombasa, he said it was regrettable that Kenyans no longer respected the law and had resorted to force to solve disputes.

He added that revolutionary groups like Muungano and Mungiki were out to cause chaos and bloodshed in the country.
(...)

As he spoke, the Nyeri Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims asked him to stop blaming any one community for the violence.

Chairman Mr. Uledi Majid said it was wrong for Mr. Nassir to heap the blame onto one community among the traders because equally Muslims were not necessarily of Coastal Arab origin but included every community in Kenya.

He condemned the violence as Satanic and expressed his sympathy for those who were hurt.

In Nairobi, Muslim leaders accused the police of harassing their colleagues.
(...)

Anglican head Archbishop David Gitari called on the Government to resign over increasing insecurity and mismanagement of national affairs.

He said he had stared death in the face during the rioting and added: ''I only survived because Muslim leaders formed a human shield around me, and in the process got more injured than myself.''
(...)

Elsewhere, Bishop Arthur Kitonga of the Redeemed Gospel Churches described the burning of the churches and the mosque as Satanic, while outside the ruins of the Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic church, Christians prayed for peace and reconciliation.

Priests and politicians blamed the violence on ''hooligans and criminals masquerading under religion''.

Nearby, at International Christian Centre on Mombasa Road, Fr Ron Sommers, who was injured, said the fighting was not between Muslims and Christians but over land.
(...)

Leaders from the two faiths were united in blaming the authorities for the violence, he [Bishop Ireri] said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


10. Stamp To Honor Muslim Holidays 'Eid' Greeting Symbolic Breakthrough For U.S. Religious Minority
The Tennessean, Dec. 4, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) The United States Postal Service will issue a stamp next year that recognizes two major Muslim holidays. Muslims, who had been campaigning for a stamp for nearly a decade, see it as a symbolic breakthrough in public recognition.
(...)

`This would have been out of the ordinary 10 or 15 years ago, but today it represents the growing presence of Muslims in America,` said Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C. CAIR pointed to other recent evidence that the nation's approximately 6 million Muslims are adding their voices to public life.

An exit poll for the presidential election suggests a Muslim voter bloc is emerging. The poll, announced last week by CAIR, said 72% of Muslims surveyed voted for George W. Bush, 8% for Al Gore and 19% for Ralph Nader. Several national Islamic political organizations endorsed Bush. `Muslim voters clearly followed the lead of Islamic political groups in voting for George Bush,` said CAIR executive director Nihad Awad. `This signals that a Muslim voting bloc must be taken into consideration in future elections.` The poll said 36% of Muslim respondents were first-time voters. One CAIR spokesman said Gore was perceived by many Muslims as too pro-Israel.

Another organization, the American Muslim Political Coordinating Council Political Action Committee, endorsed Bush after citing Bush's outreach to Muslim communities and his pledge to end the use of secret evidence in immigration deportation hearings.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Catholicism

11. Nun evicted from South End center for performing priest rites
Boston Herald, Dec. 4, 2000
http://www.bostonherald.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Members of the Jesuit Urban Center stoically marched to and from their cars yesterday, quietly loading the belongings of a popular 73-year-old nun who the clergy has tossed into the cold after 11 years of service.
(...)

A one-time co-director of the center, Normandin was fired and ordered to leave in October, after performing three religious rites delegated only to priests.

``She's more of a priest than any of them here,'' said Jeremiah O'Connor, a 35-year member. ``This has been blown way out of proportion. There are much worse things going on in the Church.''

Jesuit officials charged Normandin with violating church policy by aiding in the baptism and anointing of two babies. And during a summer wedding, she allegedly wore a stole and alb - garb designated only for priests.
(...)

Several congregants, who moved Normandin's belongings to her new Fenway one-bedroom apartment, said the termination is a sign of a much larger issue. ``The whole issue of the role of women in the church is much greater than just throwing Jeannette out,'' said Arthur Coe, a Dorchester man who left the church over the firing.

``Women have been the backbone of the church and yet they're relegated as second-class citizens.''

Normandin, a member of the Sisters of Saint Anne, has been instrumental in building the center's membership to include hundreds of gay Catholics.

Six years ago, she founded Ruah, a live-in center in Cambridge for women with AIDS, and is well-known for her work with homeless and drug-addicted women.

Last month, she was chosen to receive the very prestigious Image of God Award, but couldn't because she had been fired.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]
» More about Catholicism
» More about women in ministry


=== Mormonism

12. Tribune sale - the truth
Deseret News, Dec. 4, 2000
http://deseretnews.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The management company that currently produces the Salt Lake Tribune has accused the Deseret News, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and William Dean Singleton, chief executive officer of the MediaNews Group, of misrepresenting the pending sale of the Tribune to MediaNews.

Despite strong public denials by these parties, the Tribune's management company, Salt Lake Tribune Publishing (SLTPC), on the eve of going to court to try to stop owners AT&T from selling the paper, has launched a media blitz to propagate the thesis that Singleton is fronting for the church and the church-owned newspaper, the Deseret News, in a conspiracy to gain control of the Tribune. In a Sunday column in the Tribune, editor James E. Shelledy wrote: ''Do I know (such premise) to be true in principle? Yes. Can I prove every detail? No.''

The strategy is clear: to sue AT&T and attack the LDS Church.

The Deseret News is not directly involved in the Tribune management company's suit against AT&T, but it has a significant and proper interest in it. Whoever owns the Tribune will own 50 percent of the Newspaper Agency Corp. (NAC). The Deseret News owns the other 50 percent.
(...)

Had the Deseret News wished to acquire the Tribune it may have done so. It was recently invited by the Tribune's owner, AT&T, to bid for the paper when AT&T decided to sell it. The Deseret News declined to bid. That left two entities invited by AT&T to bid for the Tribune - the management company made up of family members and officers who formerly owned and sold the Tribune, and Singleton's MediaNews Group, which owns 48 daily newspapers in the United States.
(...)

Apparently, MediaNews' bid was significantly higher than the Tribune management company's.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


13. Mesa police officers accuse department of discrimination
The Arizona Republic, Dec. 5, 2000
http://www.azcentral.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Nine current and former Mesa officers sued the police department and the city in federal court Monday, alleging gender, racial and religious discrimination.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and attorneys' fees, accuses department supervisors of promoting officers who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over non-LDS officers and enforcing a policy that denies all officers the opportunity to file grievances over transfers.
(...)

Police Chief Jan Strauss is Mormon, but there are no other LDS members on the department's command staff.
(...)

To view the full text of the lawsuit, go to ripoffreport.com.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


» Part 2