================================================================
Religion News Report - March 19, 2001 (Vol. 5, Issue 337)
================================================================

=== Aum Shinrikyo
1. Aum Doomsday Cult Shadows Japan
2. Key Members of the Aum Cult

=== Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
3. Uganda Cult Mass Murder Anniversary
4. Up in smoke or into thin air? Uganda's killer cult leaders a year on

=== Ho-no-hana Sanpogyo
5. Taxman sinks boot into foot cult
6. Bureaus put foot down over Honohana taxes
7. Foot cult leader failed to declare 750 million yen in income

=== Falun Gong
8. Girl Set Ablaze in Tiananmen Dies
9. Exhibition Targeting Falun Gong Begins in Hong Kong
10. Falun Gong puts spotlight on HK civil servants
11. Analysis: US, China still clash on Falun Gong

=== Scientology
12. Threat of Scientologists' Legal Wrath Prompts Slashdot to Censor a Posting
13. Scientologists Force Comment Off Slashdot
14. Slashdot buckles to Scientology loonies
15. Xenu Do, But Not on Slashdot
16. Holy? Or wholly without grounds

=== Buddhism
17. 'Buddha's hair' found in China

=== Islam
18. 400 Afghan clerics decided to destroy statues: Minister
19. Taliban Ways Under Question

=== Catholicism
20. Italy threatens to silence Vatican [Radio]
21. Few confessions

=== Mormonism
22. SLOC and the LDS Church downplay the church's involvement in the Olympics
23. From SLOC Leadership to Liquor, Church Has Long Had a Powerful Olympic Voice
24. Special Treatment for the Church?
25. Non-LDS Religious Leaders Cite Minimal Input
26. Courting Controversy
27. Sex change worshipper sues the Mormons

=== Hate Groups
28. Bertollini sues Coeur d'Alene newspaper
29. Parade foes to put best foot forward
30. Report Links Putin to Anti-Semitism
31. Estee Lauder's latest tangle
32. What's in a Name?

=== False Memory Syndrome
33. Jury awards family millions

=== Faith Healing
34. Senate Panel Backs Faith-Healing Ban When Kids At Risk
35. Mandatory medical aid for sick kids gets committee OK

=== Other News
36. Atheist leader's remains found on Texas ranch
37. China Extends Cult Crackdown to Protestants, Says Rights Group
38. Sect Not Allowed to Build Cult Hall [Universal Church of the Kingdom of God]
39. Man Shot Dead As Bulletproof Magic Fails
40. Moscow police make arrest in multiple murder
41. Poles rethink anti-sect moves after minority church complaints
42. Appeals court says Ohio motto is acceptable

=== Faith-Based & Community Initiatives
43. Conservatives call for ouster of director of faith-based charities


=== Aum Shinrikyo

1. Aum Doomsday Cult Shadows Japan
AP, Mar. 18, 2001
http://news.excite.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) Six years since the Aum Shinri Kyo doomsday cult carried out a deadly nerve gas attack on rush-hour commuters in Tokyo - an act of urban terrorism that killed a dozen people - the wounds it left on the country have yet to heal.

The cult is still alive and well. Police searching for the three Aum fugitives have long since run out of leads despite a $50,000 reward. And the trial of the cult's guru drags on in a Tokyo court, with no verdict expected for years to come.
(...)

Some 5,000 people were sickened during the attack on March 19, 1995, when cultists used umbrellas to poke holes in bags full of concentrated Sarin nerve gas on five busy subway lines.

The cultists were trying to start a chain of events leading to Armageddon, as prophesized by Shoko Asahara, their guru.

Seven followers have been sentenced to death by a lower court - five just last year - for crimes including a nerve gas attack that killed seven people in June 1994. Four cultists have been given life sentences.

But Asahara, 45, is still on trial at the Tokyo District Court, more than 180 sessions after he made his first appearance before the judges for allegedly masterminding the attack. Experts say it could take 10 years until a verdict is rendered, and appeals could add several more.

The length of the proceedings has been blamed on the scale of Aum's crimes, allegations that Asahara was involved only indirectly and the unwillingness of some cult members to break their silence.

The case has also underscored the fact that Japan's legal system is notoriously sluggish.
(...)

The cult, disbanded in a police crackdown following the 1995 attack, has changed its name and is under new leadership. By some accounts, its membership - which dwindled from more than 10,000 before the attack to several hundred - is back up to about 1,700.

Now called Aleph, it has apologized for Aum's crimes and started to compensate victims. A lawyer administering the cult's bankruptcy proceedings said last May that senior Aleph leaders approved a proposal under which they will pay $37.4 million.
(...)

Cult members continue to worship Asahara and his teachings, which included ideas from Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and New Age beliefs, and preached that the end was near.

''The remaining members are the hard core,'' said Nobutaka Inoue, a professor at Kokugakuin University who specializes in new religions. ''Some believe Asahara wasn't involved. What's disturbing is that others accept his involvement, but don't care.''
(...)

''They're still fixated on Armageddon, and they're very savvy technologically,'' said Raisuke Miyawake, a former organized crime specialist with Japan's national police. ''I consider them to be a threat.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


2. Key Members of the Aum Cult
AP, Mar. 18, 2001
http://news.excite.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
What's happened to the founder of the Aum Shinri Kyo cult, his family and his followers since the 1995 Tokyo subway attack:

-SHOKO ASAHARA, 45: Aum's guru, who attracted followers with claims he could levitate, among other things, is on trial for murder and other crimes in a lower Tokyo court. In an effort to speed up proceedings, prosecutors last year dropped three of the 17 charges against him.

-YASUO HAYASHI, 43: Dubbed the ''murder machine'' by the Japanese media, Asahara's chief scientific adviser was sentenced to death in July for puncturing three plastic bags of sarin gas on a crowded subway.

-TOMOKO MATSUMOTO, 42: Asahara's wife was convicted of conspiring with her husband and other Aum disciples to kill another cult member. She is serving a six-year prison sentence.

-REIKA MATSUMOTO, 17: Asahara's daughter was involved in a brief kidnapping of his 7-year-old son last year in an apparent leadership struggle. Some cult watchers say Asahara's children are revered by followers.

-MIWA MATSUMOTO, 22: Asahara's oldest daughter was arrested last month on charges she shoplifted $175 worth of food from a Tokyo supermarket.

-FUMIHIRO JOYU, 38: The handsome, media-friendly Aum spokesman was released from prison in December 1999 and is considered the current de facto leader of the cult.

-TATSUKO MURAOKA, 50: An aide to Asahara's family, she formally assumed leadership of Aum after the guru's arrest but is regarded as a figurehead.
[...entire item...]
» Back to menu