=== Aum Shinrikyo
1. Don't forget Tokyo subway gas attack: survivors and bereaved families
2. Subway staff remember victims of 1995 AUM gassing

=== Scientology
3. Tom Cruise Ends another Affair
4. Update: Cruise Still With Scientology
5. Cruise Dumps Scientology - NOT!
6. [harassment has become so commonplace that it is no longer newsworthy]
7. A Thorn in the MPAA's Side

=== Buddhism
8. 'Vietnam Buddhist burns herself to death'
9. Vietnam sect leader allowed home, status unclear

=== Islam
10. Cows slaughtered over delay in Buddha statues destruction
11. Taliban Explains Buddha Demolition
12. Muslim destroyers reach for the heart of Jewish holy sites

=== Mormonism
13. Visiting Reporters Complain Venues Tour Turned Into a Pitch for Church, State
14. Mormons under pressure on drink

=== Hate Groups
15. More teens buying white power music
16. Speakers with anti-Semitic ties coming to B.C. rally
17. Klan Highway Sign Isn't Welcome, Say Potosi, Mo., Residents

=== House of Prayer (Atlanta)
18. Church disputes claims of abuse
19. DFCS to take 10 more kids from members of Atlanta church in wake of abuse probe

=== Other News
20. French Sect Members Tried for Baby-Killing
21. Ex-dean of BU chapel on leave for illness
22. Families seek help from dangers of cults
23. 'Volatile' Prophetic Writings Set to Stir Further Controversy (Rick
Joyner)

=== Noted
24. False Prophets in Poland
25. Christian ministers to embrace Rainbow
26. The Work, the FBI and a habit of silence (Opus Dei)

=== Books
27. Religion researcher's 40-year quest to tabulate every believer on earth



=== Islam

10. Cows slaughtered over delay in Buddha statues destruction
Kyodo (Japan), Mar. 19, 2001
http://home.kyodo.co.jp/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
KABUL March 19 Kyodo - Taliban authorities Monday sacrificed 100 cows in ''atonement'' for the delay in its destruction of two giant Buddha statues in Bamyan Province.

Twelve cows were slaughtered and their meat distributed to the poor in Kabul, while similar sacrificial rites were held in the 28 other provinces of Afghanistan, Taliban officials said.

Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar issued an edict Feb. 26 ordering the destruction of all statues in Afghanistan on the grounds they are offensive to Islam.

The cows were sacrificed because Omar's decree called for the statues be destroyed in one day but the process took almost two weeks.
(...)

It is customary among Muslims to sacrifice livestock to atone for their sins. The meat is then distributed among the poor.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


11. Taliban Explains Buddha Demolition
New York Times, Mar. 19, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
With outrage still fresh around the world over the destruction of two giant Buddha statues in Afghanistan, a Taliban envoy says the Islamic government made its decision in a rage after a foreign delegation offered money to preserve the ancient works while a million Afghans faced starvation.

''When your children are dying in front of you, then you don't care about a piece of art,'' Sayed Rahmatullah Hashimi, the envoy, said in an interview on Friday.

Mr. Rahmatullah is in the United States on a mission to improve ties and ease the Taliban's isolation. A main focus of his visit, he said, will be to find a way out of the impasse surrounding Osama bin Laden, the terrorist suspect whose presence in Afghanistan has prompted international sanctions.

Still, Mr. Rahmatullah expressed no remorse over the demolition of the two giant Buddhas, carved from a cliff in central Afghanistan 1,400 years ago and considered one of the world's artistic treasures.

An adviser to the Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, Mr. Rahmatullah gave for the first time here the Taliban's version of events: how a council of religious scholars ordered the statues destroyed in a fit of indignation.

The destruction, according to his account, was prompted last month when a visiting delegation of mostly European envoys and a representative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization offered money to protect the giant standing Buddhas at Bamian, where the Taliban was engaged in fighting an opposition alliance.

Other reports, however, have said the religious leaders were debating the move for months, and ultimately decided that the statues were idolatrous and should be obliterated.

At the time the foreign delegation visited, United Nations relief officials were warning that a long drought and a harsh winter were confronting up to a million Afghans with starvation. Mr. Rahmatullah said that when the visitors offered money to repair and maintain the statues, the Taliban's mullahs were outraged.

''The scholars told them that instead of spending money on statues, why didn't they help our children who are dying of malnutrition? They rejected that, saying, `This money is only for statues.' ''

''The scholars were so angry,'' he continued. ''They said, `If you are destroying our future with economic sanctions, you can't care about our heritage.' And so they decided that these statues must be destroyed.'' The Taliban's Supreme Court confirmed the edict.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


12. Muslim destroyers reach for the heart of Jewish holy sites
Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), Mar. 19, 2001
http://www.smh.com.au/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The destruction by the Taliban of the two ancient Buddhist statues in Afghanistan reaches across into the Middle East and touches the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

As the Taliban were blowing up the relics of Buddhism, leading Israeli figures were trying to stop Muslims from destroying archaeological treasures dating back 3,000 years in Jerusalem.

It was a fatwa - a religious ruling binding on Muslims - issued by the Taliban which called on the faithful to tear down Buddhist statues. It was through a fatwa that the Mufti of Jerusalem just a few weeks ago laid claim to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, including the Western Wall, sacred to Jews.

The Taliban and the Palestinian Muslims share the belief that all that went before the rise of Islam 1,400 years ago is valueless and an affront to Islam.
(...)

The Jerusalem Mufti said all the stones of the Western Wall belonged to the Muslims and had no link to Jewish history.

The fatwa in Jerusalem was issued as Israeli archaeologists, historians, writers and others increased a campaign to stop the Mufti's organisation, known as the Wakf, from destroying the site. So vast are the depths of the grounds beneath the Temple Mount that archaeologists are thought to have barely scratched the surface.

The Jews call it the Temple Mount because they believe it is where King Solomon built the First Temple, which was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and where the Second Temple was built and then destroyed by the Romans in AD70.

Muslims call it the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), and believe it is the place where their Prophet and founder, Mohammed, rose up to heaven to meet God.

In his fatwa, the mufti, Sheikh Ekrima Sa'id Sabri, said the entire area of the Temple Mount belonged to the Wakf. That included the Western Wall, which he said was the supporting wall of the Al-Aqsa mosque, sacred to Muslims.

The Wakf also owned treasures of the site to a depth of seven stories below and a height of seven stories above, he said. This was his answer to Jews who say the Muslims are causing enormous damage to the antiquities of the Temple Mount.

A group of Israelis, including a former mayor of Jerusalem, Mr Teddy Kollek, a former mayor of Tel Aviv, Mr Shlomo Lahat, the author Amos Oz, generals, academics and archaeologists, have a petition before the High Court of Justice.

The group says that 15,000 cubic metres of debris and earth saturated with archaeological artefacts from every era has been carried away in trucks over the past few years.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


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