=== Aum Shinrikyo
1. Outcast Aum aids landlord's plan

=== Falun Gong
2. China Sect Members Ask Singapore Aid
3. News Corp. Heir Woos China With Show of Support

=== Scientology
4. A church for celebrities, but what about me?
5. Police work for Scientology

=== Unification Church
6. Clergy split over controversial Moon's visit
7. Chief of Moonies stops in Jackson on U.S. tour
8. Reverend Moon goes mainstream in 50-state tour
9. Moon plans to speak at revival in W. Baltimore
10. Moon, in D.M., pushes marriage

=== Islam
11. Muslims demand halal foods be served in Dearborn schools

=== Militia Groups / Hate Groups
12. Texas farm standoff enters second year
13. 100 held as Met launches dawn raids on hate crime
14. Nobody enjoys an apologist

=== ISCKON / Hare Krishna
15. Living with Krishna
16. Spiritual school
17. Food of the gods
18. Chic Krishna

=== Hinduism
19. Boutique Deities Offend

=== House of Prayer (Atlanta)
20. Minister has prior conviction for beating
21. Abuse claims not new, files say
22. 19 children to remain in state custody
23. Pastor says he'll take chance with jury
24. 'Who's supposed to be the villain?'
25. Child Beatings: 'They'd beat them for every simple little thing they'd do'
26. Corporal punishment part of black American culture
27. Welfare officials acknowledge the value of spanking

=== False Memory Syndrome
28. Fairlie sues over daughter's 'false memory' claims

=== Other News
29. LA County Pays $85,000 Settlement
30. Muslims fear for their lives as cannibal cult leader escapes
31. Fortunetelling legal again in Coeur d'Alene
32. School rejected girl's religious cards, suit says
33. Woman Detained After Vampire Assaults

=== Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
34. Bush's initiative could help groups that promote faith healing

=== Death Penalty and other Human Rights Abuses
35. Texas fight takes on race and death penalty


=== Militia Groups / Hate Groups

12. Texas farm standoff enters second year
Dallas Morning News, Mar. 23, 2001
http://www.dallasnews.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
An anti-government fugitive wanted in the assault of a Texas highway patrolman has rejected a plea bargain and remains holed up with relatives on his Henderson County farm.

The low-intensity standoff between law officers and John Joe Gray has entered its second year with no end in sight, according to those close to the negotiations.

Mr. Gray, 52, his family's patriarch, is wanted on two felony charges in which he is accused of biting a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper and attempting to disarm him during a traffic stop on Dec. 24, 1999. He faces two to 10 years in prison and a maximum $10,000 fine on each charge.

Mr. Gray retreated to his property near Cedar Creek Lake last spring and never showed up for hearings or to stand trial.

Warrants for his arrest were issued last May but were never served.

Eddie Miers, a former police officer and negotiator in the case, said Monday that Mr. Gray has emphatically rejected a plea deal that would require authorities to drop one felony charge and bring him to trial on the other.
(...)

In the mid-1990s, Mr. Gray was active in the Texas Militia, a militant anti-government group. Militia units sometimes trained on his property, according to police.

While Gray family members scoff at government authority, they also profess strict Christian beliefs based, they say, on the Bible.
(...)

Henderson County Sheriff Ronny Brownlow said the courts, district attorney and the Texas Department of Public Safety have left the case up to him, and that he has no intention of raiding Mr. Gray's property to arrest him.

''He's got no criminal history, no close neighbors in danger and he's hiding behind women and kids,'' Sheriff Brownlow said. ''I think he'll wear out.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


13. 100 held as Met launches dawn raids on hate crime
Evening Standard (England), Mar. 20, 2001
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Around 100 people suspected of carrying out racist and homophobic campaigns against Londoners were arrested today.
(...)

Scotland Yard believe they have put out of action some of the worst extremists in London.

Detective Chief Superintendent John Godsave said: ''Today's arrests are another example of our commitment to show that hate crime will be robustly dealt with.

Put simply, it will not be tolerated in London.
(...)

As part of the Met's March Against Hate initiative, the raids targeted people suspected of carrying out racist and homophobic crime and domestic violence.

The Evening Standard witnessed a number of swoops in Newham. Police raided the home of a man suspected of running a Nazi website and another who had terrorised the local community with racial abuse and unprovoked assaults.

In Barnet, an operation harassing a local Jewish association was put out of action. In Croydon, a family were evicted from their home for constant use of racist language and behaviour towards their neighbours.

In Ealing, police swooped on a man suspected of sending racist hate mail and in Hackney a number of people were targeted for offensive graffiti.

Ten arrests were being made in connection with racist assaults and threats to kill in Lewisham, and in Southwark two suspects were expected to be questioned for a serious attack on two teenage Asian brothers in which one received a fractured skull and was knocked unconscious.
(...)

In the first two months of this year 2,659 racist crimes, 217 homophobic crimes and nearly 15,000 incidents of domestic violence were reported to police.
The Met's community safety units also embarked on a series of activities aimed at raising awareness of hate crime in the capital and supporting victims.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


14. Nobody enjoys an apologist
Bowling Green State U. / U-Wire, Mar. 21, 2001 (Editorial)
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(U-WIRE) BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -- Damned if you do.
Damned if you don't.

These are the lessons being taught to journalism students across the nation.

On the West coast, the student newspaper at the U. of California at Berkeley (the Daily Californian) has found that an apology can be just as offensive as a controversial opinion.

In the Midwest, the students behind The Badger Herald at the U. of Wisconsin have discovered the immense pressures that come from allowing the publication of an unpopular opinion.

Next to the Atlantic Ocean, the Brown Daily Herald (Brown U.) had its voice stolen because it allowed an opinion to be voiced. Its Ivy League siblings have come under scrutiny for not printing the same opinion.

All of this has resulted from the now-infamous advertisement that writer David Horowitz has submitted to numerous college newspapers. Bearing the title, ''Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Slavery Is a Bad Idea -- and Racist Too.'' This ad can now be found online at www.frontpagemag.com.

The debates that are rising from this ad are far more important than the document itself. Ideally, people with dissenting opinions would write, speak and otherwise express their disagreement. Civil arguments would ensue, and the public would be enlightened. The end.

Instead, few people are talking about the ad's content. The topic on the tips of their tongues and the points of their pens is our Constitution. More specifically, Amendment Numero Uno.
(...)

But such are the consequences and necessities of our First Amendment. Such debate allows the people involved to learn and come to their own conclusions.

What is not acceptable, though, is the attempt by a group of students (the Third World Coalition) to silence another group (the Brown Daily Herald). There is a delicious irony in the fact that a group supposedly against oppression would try to get its point across by taking away the speech of others.

No matter what these newspapers have decided, they will face criticism. But the only ones who should truly be damned are the students who felt it necessary to deny the Brown Daily Herald a basic American right.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


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