=== Aum Shinrikyo
1. 700 people file protest over AUM followers in neighborhood

=== Falun Gong / Zhong Gong
2. Falun Gong Members Sentenced

=== Falun Gong
3. Hong Kong Falun Gong Followers Reject China Accusations
4. Paper Calls for Educating Falun Gong Followers
5. `Long Hair' keeps away from sect

=== Scientology
6. Scientologist withdraws bid for church
7. Travolta's pulp science fiction finds new life on video

=== Hinduism
8. Thousands wait for the god Vishnu to appear
9. Online pilgrimage to Hindu festival
10. Scientist monitoring pollution at religious congregation
11. Nude bathers nabbed at Kumbh fest

=== Sikhism
12. Sikhs threaten cow slaughter in Hindu beef

=== Islam
13. Coca Cola controversy a non-starter

=== Mungiki
14. Kenya: Police break up Mungiki sect rally near Nairobi
15. Journalist Injured During Attack By Sect Members

» Part 2

=== Mormonism
16. Mormon Temple Opponents Lose Appeal
17. Religious groups back legal victory for Mormons
18. Tribune Files To Block JOA Changes

=== Hate Groups
19. Before rally, an interview with a Klan member

=== Other News
20. Tampa trial of church officials accused of fraud gets under way
21. Disasters Killed 17,000 in 2000 (includes MRTCG murders)
22. Religious group awaits resurrection
23. Bail for Man in NY Handcuff Attempt
24. Disinformation campaign on against Christians: Bishop
25. Catholics, Pentecostals in new body
25a. Protests over 'gay' Jesus play

» Part 3

=== Alternative Healing
26. US panel examines alternative medicines
27. Its medicine, not glitz
28. Centre mulls introducing Ayurveda science in US
29. Deepak Chopra's daughter puts new age healing on Net
30. No Real Way to Put Prayers to the Test
31. Hospital dedicated center to lift spirits

=== Science
32. Kan. Board To OK Science Standards
33. Sideshows of Science (CSICOP)

=== Noted
34. Poll: Politics, Religion Don't Mix
35. Britain's growing band of religious hermits


=== Aum Shinrikyo

1. 700 people file protest over AUM followers in neighborhood
Kyodo (Japan), Jan. 9, 2001
http://home.kyodo.co.jp/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
TOKYO Jan. 9 Kyodo - About 700 residents of Tokyo's Setagaya Ward lodged a protest Tuesday against the AUM Shinrikyo cult, calling on members living in their neighborhood to leave quickly.

The local residents said in a written protest statement that they have developed ''enormous concerns'' since 13 AUM followers filed for domicile registration with the ward office in December.

On Tuesday, representatives of the residents visited an apartment in which the followers currently live and handed the statement to a male follower.

It calls on AUM members to leave the cult, saying, ''We would support AUM members as our neighbors if they defect from the cult.''

But it warns, ''We demand AUM members immediately leave the neighbor if they keep using the apartment as a cult facility.''

The members of the cult, which now calls itself ''Aleph,'' responded by handing their own statement to the representatives, saying they too hope to live a trouble-free life.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Falun Gong / Zhong Gong

2. Falun Gong Members Sentenced
The Associated Press, Jan. 9, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
BEIJING -- Beijing courts on Tuesday sentenced three followers of the outlawed Falun Gong movement to as long as six years in prison for printing and distributing leaflets protesting the government crackdown on the group.
(...)

Police in eastern Shandong province also arrested six Falun Gong members who had clandestinely printed 20 different types of leaflets for public distribution since June, state-run China Central Television said late Monday. Footage showed police seizing boxes of printed paper.
(...)

Meanwhile, the Higher People's Court of eastern Jiangsu province on Tuesday rejected an appeal by four members of another banned meditation and exercise movement who were sentenced to between two and four years imprisonment on subversion charges, a Hong Kong-based rights group said.

The four were among 600 Zhong Gong organizers reportedly rounded up after the group, which like Falun Gong attracted millions of followers, was banned as a cult in 1999. They four were accused of disseminating letters purportedly written by senior police officials that criticized Chinese President Jiang Zemin for the crackdowns on both sects, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Falun Gong

3. Hong Kong Falun Gong Followers Reject China Accusations
Reuters, Jan. 9, 2001
http://www.insidechina.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A leader of the Falun Gong spiritual movement in Hong Kong rejected on Tuesday Beijing's accusations that the movement was a ''cheap tool'' of Western forces trying to topple the Communist Party.

''All the accusations made by the Chinese government against Falun Gong are groundless,'' Kan Hung-cheung, chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Falun Dafa, told Reuters.
(...)

China's official Xinhua news agency last week singled Kan out for criticism, calling him ''a core member of the evil cult''.

While banned on mainland China, it is legal in Hong Kong, a former British colony promised a high degree of autonomy when it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.
(...)

For the second day running, China's official People's Daily on Tuesday published a commentary vilifying the group and its U.S.-based founder Li Hongzhi.
''Some anti-China forces in the West have assessed the situation incorrectly, trying to use Li and his cult as a cheap tool to topple the leadership of the Communist Party of China and change China's political system,'' the newspaper said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


4. Paper Calls for Educating Falun Gong Followers
Xinhua [China's state-run news agency], Jan. 9, 2001
http://202.84.17.11/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
BEIJING, January 9 (Xinhuanet) -- While punishing a handful of stubborn Falun Gong backbone activists according to law, policies for educating and uniting the majority of Falun Gong followers should be adhered to, China's leading newspaper People's Daily says.

A commentary to be published by the paper Wednesday says the policies will help bring the majority of the Falun Gong followers out of the spiritual control by the cult and resume their normal life.

The commentary, entitled ''Adhere to the Policy of Uniting, Educating and Salvaging'', hails decisive victories of the anti-Falun Gong campaign, saying that the anti-cult campaign launched by the Party and the government aims to protect the interests of the people and citizens' freedom of religious belief and human dignity.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


5. `Long Hair' keeps away from sect
Hong Kong iMail/WorldSources/The Associated Press, Jan. 8, 2001
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Radical protester Leung Kwok-hung has agreed to keep his distance from Sunday's international Falun Gong conference in City Hall-to avoid giving the sect a ``subversive'' image. Mr Leung says he reached a ``mutual understanding'' along these lines a year ago with leaders of the group, who scored something of a coup by obtaining a government venue for the conference. The April 5th Action Group of which ``Long Hair'' Leung is a core member has been branded subversive by Beijing. This is, however, somewhat milder than the treatment of the Falun Gong, which is banned outright on the mainland as an ``evil cult'' and has been subjected to a heavy-handed crackdown.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Scientology

6. Scientologist withdraws bid for church
St. Petersburg Times, Jan. 10, 2001
http://www.sptimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
LARGO -- A wealthy Scientologist has withdrawn plans to buy a church in downtown Largo in which she hoped to open a Scientology mission.

Kathy Feshbach said she did not feel comfortable about completing the deal after learning another church, which had been offered the chance to buy the property before her, is still interested in buying it.

She said she will focus on finding another site in Largo for a mission.
(...)

The Rev. Howard Brockway, pastor of Grace Community Fellowship Church, recently set up a bank account for donations to buy the building.
(...)

Abundant Life Ministries Pastor Anthony McDaniel said he met with Grace Community Fellowship representatives Monday and offered to sell the property to Grace for $389,000. Grace representatives told McDaniel they would respond by Thursday.

McDaniel said Grace believed it had the exclusive right to buy the property, a claim McDaniel disputed. Grace Community Fellowship officials could not be reached for comment.

''We're trying to resolve this without going to the lawyers,'' McDaniel said.
(...)

Feshbach, a Scientologist for 18 years whose family has been a major contributor to the Church of Scientology and its related efforts, said she is looking for another Largo property for the mission.
(...)

On Tuesday, Feshbach met with Mayor Bob Jackson and City Commissioner Marty Shelby to discuss her plans and allay any fears they may have about a Scientology mission in Largo. After Feshbach's plans became public last month, several city commissioners and some residents said they were vehemently opposed to a Scientology mission in Largo, citing the sometimes acrimonious relationship between the Church of Scientology and the city of Clearwater.
(...)

Feshbach told Jackson there are no plans by the Church of Scientology to create a major presence in downtown Largo by purchasing large strips of land.

''The international headquarters are in Clearwater,'' she said. ''I don't think we need any more.''

Jackson was pleased to hear that from Feshbach.

''I feel better to get assurances that they would not expand their operations,'' he said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* For a look at what the business cult has done to the city of Clearwater, see:

Occupied Clearwater

7. Travolta's pulp science fiction finds new life on video
UPI, Jan. 8, 2001
http://www.vny.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) ''Battlefield Earth,'' which was skewered by critics and shunned by
audiences when it was released last spring, will be available on video this
Friday.
(...)

Travolta, who also served as a producer on ''Battlefield Earth,'' said that
making this movie was something he'd dreamed about for years.
(...)

What really took it so long to get to the screen, Travolta said, was that
the filmmakers couldn't find a scribe who loved the book enough to write a
script that did it justice. They finally found one and the film was made
with a $50 million-or-so budget -- a ridiculously low amount of money to
make a sci-fi movie by today's standards.
(...)

Another challenge in making the film was the fact that it was based on a
book by Hubbard, who founded the controversial Church of Scientology. That
was something that made some investors and studios a little nervous.

Travolta, who, along with his wife, actress Kelly Preston, is a dedicated
follower of Scientology, dismissed allegations that the film was a
propoganda piece for the church as ''silly.''

''I don't know of any particular messages other than the ones that I've
heard, that people have told me, like knowledge is power, things like that,''
he said. ''But basically it's an entertainment piece.''

Travolta added that he thought Hubbard would be very pleased with the
movie, which is based on only the first half of his book. A sequel is in the
works.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Rogert Ebert on the ''entertainment'' provided by ''Battlefield Earth:

''''Battlefield Earth' is like taking a bus trip with someone who has needed
a bath for a long time. It's not merely bad; it's unpleasant in a hostile
way.''

=== Hinduism

8. Thousands wait for the god Vishnu to appear
Independent (England), Jan. 10, 2001
http://www.independent.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The confluence of the rivers Yamuna and Ganges just outside Allahabad's medieval city walls is usually a quiet waste of white sand where small boys play scratch games of cricket. But this week, these sand flats became point zero of an enormous city that sprang up practically overnight.

The Kumbh Mela, which may, if the authorities' predictions are fulfilled, become the biggest gathering of human beings for a single purpose in history, opened yesterday. Already, tens of thousands of Hindu pilgrims and ascetics are camped on the banks and most of them have immersed themselves in the cold, swirling, slug-brown waters.

According to Hindus, this is one of four places along the Ganges where the god Vishnu spilt drops of heavenly nectar. At particular astrological moments when Jupiter is in Aries, the faithful believe that the waters are transformed into nectar, and that to bathe in them is to attain Mokha, liberation from the cycle of birth and death. That core item of belief is the reason up to 70 million Hindus will make the journey to Allahabad over the next 40 days. The alignment of the planets will not be as auspicious again for 144 years.
(...)

Immersion and consequent liberation is the raison d'etre of the festival, but, like all great pilgrimages, it attracts a host of other activities. Most of India's half million sadhus, Hindu ascetics, will assemble here over the next month and a half, many stark naked, their uncut hair matted, their bodies smeared with ash, some dashing perilously on frisky Arab horses. Others brandish cutlasses and tridents to menace those who might prevent them being first into the water in a way that is not obviously pious. Between the ritual bathing, the sadhus debate issues of moment to their respective sects, sign up new recruits, expel those who have done wrong - and openly smoke large chillums of hashish or opium.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


9. Online pilgrimage to Hindu festival
AFP, Jan. 9, 2001
http://www.news24.co.za/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
New Delhi - Hindu pilgrims unable to attend the world's largest religious festival in northern India can for the first time seek spiritual salvation on the Internet with a computer-aided purification bath.
(...)

Millions of others who cannot attend the mega-event can absolve themselves of their wrongdoings or ensure a place in heaven for their dead ancestors with the click of a mouse, a tub of water and dollops of devotion.

Spearheading the revolution is webduniya.com (http://webduniya.com), which touts itself as the official Kumbh Mela website.

Other sites including kumbhallahabad.com (http://www.kumbhallahabad.com), prayagonline.com (http://www.prayagonline.com), indiatimes.com (http://www.indiatimes.com) and rediff.com (http://www.rediff.com) are also focussing on the pilgrimage with special features for tourists including a virtual tour of Allahabad.

Webduniya is offering detailed instructions about the ritual with an audio facility for playing ancient Hindu prayers, called ''Shlokas,'' which are recited during the purificatory bath.
(...)

The website says the ''best time for the bath is dawn when the nine orifices have to be cleaned thoroughly.

''Dip yourself down to the waist in water. Take a cupful of water in your palms and sprinkle it in all four directions while reciting prayers. Then throw some water at the back over the top of your head.

''The body is now pure so it is time for the mind. Meditate and pray and then face the sun and offer your tributes to the 360 million (Hindu) gods to seek their benediction.''

But it also warns against serial sinning, saying: ''After the bath you are as pure as on the day you were born. But you have to vow never to resort to lies or untruth until the day you die.''
(...)

Traditionalists may carp that a cyber-bath is not the real thing, but for a leader of India's powerful Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, World Hindu Forum), virtual salvation is not a problem.

VHP leader Vishnu Hari Dalmia, whose organisation has close links to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist party, said it was a reflection that India was moving on.

''We don't take the bullock cart nowadays, there are ships, planes and trains. So it is fitting that in the new millennium, we are marrying the computer to religion,'' he said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


10. Scientist monitoring pollution at religious congregation
APA, Jan. 10, 2001
http://news.24.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Allahbad, India - Scientists are collecting samples every hour to analyse levels of air, water and sound pollution at the Kumbh Mela, a 43-day religious congregation of millions of Hindus that opened this week.

A team of 12 scientists from the Institute of Toxicological Research Centre in Lucknow, the capital of northern Uttar Pradesh state, will suggest preventive steps to the state government to reduce pollution levels at such gatherings in the future, one of the scientists said on Wednesday.
(...)

The scientists are taking samples from the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers and analysing them every hour as people dip their bodies into the waters. ''So many people taking the dip at the same time will reduce the oxygen level of the water. That will increase the faecal, bacterial and chloroform level, leading to skin diseases, ear pain and pus formation,'' Seth said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


11. Nude bathers nabbed at Kumbh fest
AFP, Jan. 10, 2001
http://news.24.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Allahabad - Inspired by tens of thousands of naked sadhus, two foreign female visitors to India's Kumbh Mela pilgrimage took a nude dip in the Ganges, and promptly found themselves in police custody.
(...)

The two women apparently argued that they were only following the example of the Nagas (the unclothed), ash-covered ascetics who never wear clothes and are the most revered of all India's sadhu (holy man) sects.
(...)

''The Nagas are an exception,'' Sharma explained.

''Their nakedness is an expression of their religion and therefore causes no offence to anyone.

''This does not extend to other groups, or foreign visitors, whether they be male or female,'' he said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Sikhism

12. Sikhs threaten cow slaughter in Hindu beef
SSouth China Morning Post, Jan. 9, 2001
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
After attacking Muslims and Christians, the Hindu hardline group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is now targeting India's Sikhs.

The Sikh community reacted with fury after RSS chief K. S. Sudershan described Sikhism as a sect of Hinduism. There is also growing resentment against the influx of tens of thousands of RSS volunteers in the predominantly Sikh border state of Punjab. The workers are reportedly distributing ''objectionable'' literature portraying Sikhs as Hindus.

Some Indian Sikhs have threatened to slaughter thousands of cows publicly and eat beef to send a message to the RSS. Hindus venerate cows and the RSS strongly opposes cow slaughter, which is permitted by law only in two communist-ruled Indian states.

The RSS is the ideological parent of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Of some 20 million Sikhs worldwide, 16.5 million live in India, mainly in Punjab and Haryana.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Islam

13. Coca Cola controversy a non-starter
The Times of India, Jan. 10, 2001
http://www.timesofindia.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
KOLKATA: Coca Cola authorities claim that they have a letter of authority from a senior cleric of Cairo, giving the soft drink giant a clean chit in the controversy over the Coke logo being allegedly anti-Islamic, if seen in the mirror.

Clerics in Lucknow, where there was a recent controversy, had claimed that the logo's mirror reflection reads La Mohammed, La Mecca (there is no Mohammed, no Mecca) in Arabic.

When contacted on Tuesday, a senior manager at Coca-Cola's Gurgaon head office, said over the phone: ''A similar controversy had taken place in Egypt way back in 1998, where some clerics had raked up a controversy over the logo. But a very senior cleric from Cairo saw the logo and gave us a written statement saying that Coca Cola had no intention of hurting religious sentiments, nor did the logo's mirror image translated in Arabic mean anything derogatory to Islam.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Mungiki

14. Kenya: Police break up Mungiki sect rally near Nairobi
BBC Monitoring, Jan. 9, 2001
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Text of report by Kenyan KTN TV on 7 January
meeting held by the unregistered Mungiki sect was this afternoon violently disrupted by police.

The meeting, which began peacefully at Waithaka town [outskirts of Nairobi], ended in chaos after police said the meeting was illegal.
(...)

Members of the sect stoned police who fired several tear gas canisters.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


15. Journalist Injured During Attack By Sect Members
Network for the Defence of Independent Media in Africa , Jan. 9, 2001
http://allafrica.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
On 7 January 2001, a journalist working for the ''People Daily'' was injured and a car used by the newspaper's service crew extensively damaged, when police clashed with members of a controversial sect known as ''Mungiki'' in Waithaka, on the outskirts of the capital Nairobi. The driver of the van also sustained serious injuries.

The followers of the sect smashed the windscreens of the van and threatened to kill the driver, Paul Ngugi. As confusion and anarchy took centre stage, the youths also stole Kes 15,000 (approx. US$200) and a cell phone belonging to the journalist, before snatching other important valuables from the driver.

Hell broke loose after fifteen ''Mungiki'' followers armed to the teeth suspected Ngugi to be a police agent and immediately started stoning the ''People's Daily'' car after they saw him communicating on a mobile phone.
(...)

Later, the sect's leader, Ndura Waruinge, called the newspaper's newsroom and apologised for the action by his members.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

» Part 2