=== Aum Shinrikyo
1. Director of film on AUM gassing awarded at Berlin festival

=== Falun Gong
2. China's Crackdown on Falun Gong Takes on Draconian Proportions
3. Chinese government objects to Thailand over falungong meeting
4. Cult under close watch
5. Falun Gong Among 126 Nominees for 2001 Nobel Peace Prize
6. China Urges World to Join in Battle Against Falun Gong and Other ''Cults''

=== Falun Gong - China's Government-Controlled Media
7. Reports from China's government-controlled media
8. Comment on US Double Standards for Heresies

=== Scientology
9. Been there, done that: Scientology
10. 'Battlefield' rules in Razzies' list of bad flicks
11. ''Battlefield Earth'' spins to Sci Fi

=== Buddhism
12. Canada urges China for talks with Dalai Lama

== Islam
13. Pakistan bans groups from raising jihad funds
14. Muslims in India smash tv sets
15. American Muslims complain of stereotyping

=== Hate Groups
16. Aryan compound sold at auction to Keenans

» Part 2

=== Other News
17. Indiana church seized for back taxes
18. Infection death ruled homicide (Gen. Assembly Church...)
19. 'Candace' bill advances (Rebirthing)
20. Life for occult child killer
21. The Beast's satanic legacy lives on (Aleister Crowley)
22. 'Prosperity Theology' Pulls on Purse Strings (Universal Church...)
23. Allegations of past child abuse threaten Hare Krishnas' existence
24. Growing Up in the Hare Krishnas
25 Saddam praises Sabaeans, pledges to build temple

=== Death Penalty and other Human Rights Abuses
26. Virginia man free after 9.5 years on death row


=== Aum Shinrikyo

1. Director of film on AUM gassing awarded at Berlin festival
Kyodo (Japan), Feb. 14, 2001
http://home.kyodo.co.jp/

BERLIN Feb. 14 Kyodo - Organizers of the 51st Berlin International Film Festival announced Tuesday a veteran Japanese director will receive a meritorious award for his latest film on the 1994 fatal nerve-gas attack by AUM Shinrikyo in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture.

Kei Kumai, 70, will receive the Berlinale Camera award at a ceremony Thursday for ''Darkness in the Light,'' which focuses on media reports that falsely accused a man in the attack that killed seven people.

Company worker Yoshiyuki Kono, 50, who was the first to report the gas attack to police, was initially considered the prime suspect even though he was also sickened by the gas. His wife remains in a coma following the attack.
[...more...]


=== Falun Gong

2. China's Crackdown on Falun Gong Takes on Draconian Proportions
AFP, Feb. 13, 2001
http://www.insidechina.com/

BEIJING, Feb 13, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) A section called Bureau 610 is in charge of suppressing the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual sect, and following the detention of more than 1,000 members of the group at Tiananmen Square on January 1, its duties have taken on a drastic new look.

''It's like a Russian pogrom,'' one Western diplomat said, referring to the organized means by which Tsarist Russia decimated the country's Jews last century.

''They are going after Falun Gong followers in an unabated and methodical fashion,'' he told AFP.

Following the January 1 protests, Bureau 610 issued orders for local government and police to take all necessary measures to prevent Falun Gong followers making similar protests on Tiananmen Square during the Lunar New Year holiday and the March parliamentary session.
(...)

''Previously they would imprison the hard core followers and try to 're-educate' and then release the marginal believers, but now it appears that even the marginal believers are getting lengthy prison sentences,'' the diplomat said.

During the 18-month crackdown police have obtained the names and addresses of thousands of Falun Gong followers they have arrested and re-arrested, allowing the state to set up surveillance at their homes.

Falun Gong followers in Beijing told AFP that before the Lunar New Year, police and officials from local neighborhood committees came to their homes either to detain them or make them sign statements promising to end their public protests.

''They are using a variety of methods to control them, including pressure by local police, neighborhood committees and work units,'' Frank Lu, of the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy told AFP.

Lu said China's reform-through-labor detention centers were also witnessing a large rise in detainees since January, but the actual numbers were hard to estimate because of the secret nature of police and judicial systems.

''They are also making families responsible for the actions of other family members through the use of economic penalties,'' he said.

Such sanctions include firing family members from state-run enterprises and institutions, withholding salaries and retirement pay and refusing promotions, health care and education benefits, Lu said.

The newly-intensified crackdown also calls on police in jails and detention centers to step up efforts to ''re-educate'' the followers.

This often means an intensification of torture and beatings aimed at making followers sign written denunciations of the group, Lu said.
[...more...]

» Amnesty International's documentation on China's record of human rights abuses

» Amnesty International press release:
China: Extensive use of torture - from police to tax collectors to birth control officials, Feb. 12, 2000

3. Chinese government objects to Thailand over falungong meeting
Radio Australia, Feb. 13, 2001
http://www.abc.net.au/

The Chinese government is objecting to plans by the falungong spiritual group's plan to hold a meeting of some 500 Thai and overseas practitioners in Bangkok in April.
(...)

Thailand says it is sympathetic to China's stance, but indicates the government will not stop the meeting long as organisers don't break any laws.

The Thai Foreign Ministry says it can't confirm reports that China has made a veiled threat to cut Thai exports if the meeting goes ahead.
[...more...]


4. Cult under close watch
Bangkok Post (Thailand), Feb. 13, 2001
http://www.bangkokpost.net/

Police are keeping watch on a move by the falungong cult in Thailand ahead of an international meeting to be held here in April.

Deputy interior permanent secretary for security affairs Veerachai Naewboonnian said the Special Branch police in Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai had been asked to keep watch on falungong followers there but there was no report about any irregularities yet.
[...more...]


5. Falun Gong Among 126 Nominees for 2001 Nobel Peace Prize
Reuters, Feb. 13, 2001
http://www.insidechina.com/

OSLO, Feb 13, 2001 -- (Reuters) The Red Cross, whose founder won the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, and China's banned Falun Gong spiritual group are among 126 nominees for the award on its 100th anniversary.

Other nominees include a convicted U.S. killer, soccer's governing body FIFA, the European Court of Human Rights, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
(...)

The prize, worth 9.0 million Swedish crowns ($929,700) in 2000, is named after Swedish philanthropist Alfred Nobel, who invented dynamite. The winner will be announced on October 12.
(...)

Lundestad said that getting nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize was no big honor. ''Getting on the list is automatic as long as the proposal comes from a person who has the right to make a nomination,'' he said.

Thousands of people around the world, including every member of every national parliament, professors of law or politics and former prize winners, are eligible to make nominations.

Swiss parliamentarian Mario Fehr, an opponent of the death penalty, has nominated Stanley ''Tookey'' Williams, a street gang founder on death row in California since a 1981 conviction for killing four people. Fehr says Williams has repented and praises him for working to deter young people from imitating him.
[...more...]


6. China Urges World to Join in Battle Against Falun Gong and Other ''Cults''
AFP, Feb. 12, 2001
http://www.insidechina.com/

BEIJING, Feb 12, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) China on Monday said its crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual movement was part of a global battle against cults and urged other countries to join in that struggle.

The state-run Xinhua news agency, in a lengthy feature, listed examples of how authorities in the United States, Japan and Europe had moved to curb cults, and said they should not use double standards when judging China's policies.

''China is willing to form a joint battlefront to wage a global struggle against cults,'' Xinhua said, quoting Wang Yusheng, secretary general of the China Anti-Cult Association.

It said participants at an international symposium on ''destructive cults'' held in Beijing in November agreed it was impossible for countries to curb the spread of cults on their own, and that international cooperation was needed.
(...)

Fu Tieshan, chairman of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, told Xinhua the Falun Gong shared sinister traits with cults in Japan, France, Uganda and the United States.
(...)

The Xinhua story listed a range of cult phenomena in foreign countries, such as Japan's Aum Supreme Truth sect and the Branch Davidians of the U.S., seemingly in an attempt to point out parallels with its own response to the Falun Gong.
[...more...]


=== Falun Gong - China's Government-Controlled Media

7. Reports from China's government-controlled media

* China's government-controlled media has, in recent days, published dozens
of items denouncing Falun Gong. As these items are essentially press
releases meant as propaganda rather than news reporting, there is little
to be gained by including them in RNR. Those interested may access the
reports via this Falun Gong news page


8. Comment on US Double Standards for Heresies
People's Daily (China's Communist Party), Feb. 13, 2001 (Opinion)
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/2

The crazy Falun Gong followers' tragic suicidal blaze in Tiananmen Square has torn off the last fig-leaf of the Falun Gong cult. Falun Gong's lie about ''truthfulness, benevolence and tolerance'' has unveiled its evil heretic nature in the crazy Falun Gong followers' suicidal blaze.
(...)

However, the Chinese government's ban of the Falun Gong cult, an act belonging to China's internal affair, has incurred the unwarranted charges from the United States. After the occurrence of the incident of the suicidal blaze of crazy falun Gong followers, the US State Department spokesman on January 24 once again attacked the Chinese government's ban of the Falun Gong cult, went so far as to ask the Chinese government to set free Falun Gong ringleaders who violated the law by disturbing social order, brazenly boosting the latter's arrogance.

Those scientifically-minded and unbiased people can see that heretic organizations, without exception, confuse and poison people's minds under the signboard of religion, causing serious harm to society. Since more than 900 followers of the US heresy- ''the People's Temple'', died by collectively taking poison in the Guyana wood in the 1970s, there has been frequent occurrence in recent years of tragedy caused by heresies in complete disregard of human life in America, Europe, Asia and Africa. In 1993, 86 followers of US ''Branch Davidian'' committed collective self-burning; in 1994, 53 Swiss and Canadian followers of ''the Order of the Solar Temple'' agreed to blaze their own bodies; in 1995, Japanese Aum Doomsday released poison gas in Tokyo subway, causing the tragedy in which 12 people died and 5,500 others injured; in 1997, 39 believers of US ''Heaven's Gate'' killed themselves by collectively taking poison; in 2000, 530 believers of the Ugandan heretic organization-''the Movement for the Restoration of Ten Commandments of God'' died in the sea of flame.

These bloody facts have their common points: First, crazy followers of heresies lost their lives under the instigation of evil doctrines such as ''eschatology'' and ''going up to the heaven''. Second, Followers of heretic organizations generally disown all their relatives and friends and make no distinction between the old and the young. Followers of the US ''Heaven's Gate'' cult changed their names and cut off any contacts with their families, pursuing only quick death; among the lives ruined by heresies, innocent youngsters make up a no small proportion; among those who burned themselves in ''the Movement for the Restoration of Ten Commandments of God'', 78 were children. Third, they set themselves against the government in an organized, planned and premeditated way. The organizational form of Aum Doomsday patterned on Japan's state administrative organizations, in order to create chaos, Aum chiefs carefully plotted the incident, they simultaneously released poison gas in five streetcars of three subways; the US ''Branch Davidian'' even set up ''an independent kingdom'' to resist the force of the fully armed US federal special agents.

A comparison with the above-mentioned heresies makes it easy to see the crazy Falun Gong followers' suicidal blaze incident concocted by Li Hongzhi, their means are exactly the same, the cruelty of Falun Gong's incident even outdid the above heresies. It can be said the Falun Gong and the above heresies are the same in their anti-science, anti-society and anti-humanity nature. Precisely because of this, in their attitude toward heresies the governments of various countries around the world adopt measures including legally banning and launching armed attacks on heresies, giving them relentless heavy blows.

After the occurrence of the incident of Aum Doomsday releasing poison gas, the Japanese government not only arrested the Aum chief Shoko Asahara and large number of backbone elements, and sentenced seven ringleaders to death, but also passed a bill for specifically dealing with Aum members. Germany and France also sent in succession the chieftains of the notorious ''Church of Scientology'' to the court and sentenced them to imprisonment or punished them by fine. After the bloody case resulting from ''the Movement for the Restoration of Ten Commandments of God'', the Ugandan court also issued an order of arrest of the heretic leaders.
(...)

In addition, many countries have set up special organizations to keep close watch on the heretic activities, at the same time they intensify publicity and education, so that the public understand the danger and nature of heresies. As early as 1996, France set up a national heresy observation center chaired by the Prime Minister of the government to supervise and guard against heresies. Switzerland also established in 2000 the first information center watching heretic activities, timely collected information about heretic activities and promptly made them known to the general public., so that the nationals could timely understand the danger of heresies and avoid being taken in. In Belgium, the federal parliament and regional parliaments all set up an anti-heresy investigation committee, there are also government departments at various levels specially in charge of combating heresies, their tasks are to announce the situation regarding heretic activities to the nationals and admonish them to heighten their vigilance against heresies.

Let's see the United States which launches arbitrary attacks on the internal affairs of other countries. In fact, when heresies are endangering the US government and social stability, the US government launched relentless attack on heresies and even repeatedly launched armed annihilation of them. In 1985, the US police flew helicopters to air drop dynamite against the ''Fearless'' heretic organization. In 1993 when it besieged the stronghold of ''Branch Davidian'' cult at Waco, Texas, the US government moved out armored cars and tanks in addition to helicopters, its measures were really severe. These facts could be found in newspapers.

The US State Department spokesman, however, adopted a double standard toward the Chinese government's effort in attacking the Falun Gong heretic organization. He criticized this and condemned that, made irresponsible remarks and confused right and wrong. In doing so the United States could only make people regard its action as an attempt to take Falun Gong as a tool to interfere in China's internal affairs.
[...more...]


=== Scientology

9. Been there, done that: Scientology
The Times (England), Feb. 13, 2001
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/
Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, who belong to the Scientologists, are divorcing. Reports have suggested that the break-up of their marriage may have occurred because of the growing religious chasm between them; that they disagreed over the extent to which Scientology should govern their family. Scientology was refused the status of a religion in Britain by the Charity Commissioners, which decided that it did not benefit the public.

In July 1984, Judge Latey, giving judgment in open court after a private hearing, described the cult in the High Court as ''corrupt'' and ''both immoral and socially obnoxious''. Judge Latey ordered a Scientologist father to hand over his ten-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter to their mother, who had fought for almost six years to be reunited with them after she broke away from the cult.

My son Andrew, who is studying for his PhD, joined the Scientologists when he was 21.
(...)

Ours is a close-knit family, so when Andrew's personality changed I was alert to it immediately. He became bad-tempered, which was not like him. He began to question our middle-class values.
(...)

When Andrew told me that ''they'' had invited him to their headquarters at East Grinstead, West Sussex, I became more suspicious. ''Who are they? What do you talk about?'' I asked him. He would not answer. I found a book in his room by L. Ron Hubbard that was total mumbojumbo. That is when it suddenly hit me: Andrew was seeing people from the Scientologists. Apparently he was late arriving at East Grinstead and ''they'' phoned us eight times to check he was going. I did something I'm not happy to admit, but it confirmed our worst fears. Andrew was planning to go to New Zealand for four months and had saved £1,500. I went through his papers and discovered receipts from the Scientologists for £1,200.

I am a counsellor working for a children's charity, so I enlisted its help.
(...)

When Andrew came home he looked strange and was aggressive. He told us he was leaving his job as a trainee pharmacist and was going to live with the Scientologists. He seemed to be slipping in and out of the cult personality he had adopted. I felt we were losing him. We went through our rehearsed speech and he listened, but when I admitted knowing that he had given them money he again became belligerent.

We were prepared to do anything to keep him away from those people and eventually tracked down a counsellor who had been a Scientologist for 12 years before leaving the cult. He agreed to talk to Andrew and they sat in a restaurant together for four hours while my husband and I worried and wandered about.

It worked. Andrew was convinced that he had been foolish. The Scientologists bombarded him with phone calls and letters for ten days. The pressure was a nightmare, but it was wonderful to hear Andrew tell them to ''get out of my life''.
[...more...]


10. 'Battlefield' rules in Razzies' list of bad flicks
CNN. Feb. 12, 2001
http://www.cnn.com/

''Battlefield Earth,'' starring John Travolta, garnered eight of nine possible category nominations in the race for the most awful film of 2000
(...)

The Golden Raspberry Award Foundation, which annually honors the sorriest Hollywood has to offer, gave ''Battlefield'' eight of nine possible category nominations in the war for the worst film of 2000. Almost 94 percent of the Razzies' 503 members named ''Battlefield'' on their ballots -- a mandate if ever there was one.

With eight nominations, the film may surpass 1995's ''Showgirls,'' which won seven awards, as the all-time Razzie champ.

Besides worst picture, ''Battlefield'' was nominated for worst actor (Travolta), worst supporting actress (Kelly Preston, Travolta's wife), worst director (Roger Christian), and worst screen couple (Travolta and ''anyone sharing the screen with him'').
[...more...]


11. ''Battlefield Earth'' spins to Sci Fi
Variety, Feb. 11, 2001
http://news.excite.com/

NEW YORK (Variety) - With no rival offers, cable's Sci Fi Channel has quietly bought TV rights to the recent John Travolta flop ''Battlefield Earth,'' for a bargain $2 million.

The deal actually happened a few months ago, but it was kept hush-hush: Sci Fi felt sheepish about the buy, and the film's domestic distributor, Warner Bros., didn't want to rub Sci Fi's nose in it.

''Earth'' became notorious when Warner Bros. released it last year to almost universal pans. The critics treated it as a vanity production of Travolta, a practicing scientologist, who had always wanted to make a movie of the novel ''Battlefield Earth'' because the author is the late L. Ron Hubbard, founder of scientology.
(...)

One wag said Warner Bros. might have attracted an offer from Comedy Central if the network were still running ''Mystery Science 3000,'' whose stock in trade was screening movies while three characters -- a scientist and two robots, the backs of their heads visible at the bottom of the screen -- delivered a constant stream of sarcastic remarks, skewering a movie that deserved to be skewered.
[...more...]


=== Buddhism

12. Canada urges China for talks with Dalai Lama
AFP, Feb. 13, 2001
http://www.timesofindia.com/

BEIJING: Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien raised the issue of human rights in China - notably the banned falungong Sect - and called on Beijing to enter into talks with the Dalai Lama, during a meeting here on Sunday with his counterpart Zhu Rongji.

Zhu, aided by an honour guard representing the three arms of the Chinese military, welcomed Chretien, whose 600-strong ''Team Canada'' delegation is the largest Canadian trade mission ever.

''I think 'Team Canada' is really an innovative form of diplomacy which has made a contribution to the bilateral relations between our two countries,'' Zhu said before beginning his talks with Chretien.

Chretien was equally sanguine, saying the goals of the first ''Team Canada'' visit in 1994 had been achieved, and pointed towards future trade progress.

''We are very hopeful that this will lead to a lot of good business cooperation between Canada and China,'' said the Canadian prime minister.

Following the talks, Chretien told reporters he had raised the gamut of human rights in China, including the crackdown on the banned falungong spiritual sect, Tibet and general civil and political rights.
[...more...]


== Islam

13. Pakistan bans groups from raising jihad funds
UPI, Feb. 12, 2001
http://www.vny.com/

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Pakistan on Monday stopped its
religious parties from collecting funds for jihad and ordered them not to
display weapons at rallies and public meetings.

Police were ordered to shoot those who refused to surrender their weapons.

''No one is allowed to display arms, no more collection of funds in the
name of jihad,'' said Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider. ''I am giving clear
orders to the police: stop people from displaying weapons and if they don't
listen, just shoot them.''

The United States and other major powers have asked Pakistan to control
organizations that urge people to fight in the name of religion. Failure to
control these groups would ''not only isolate Pakistan, but will also lead to
strife and civil war within the country,'' said a recent warning from the
U.S. State Department.

Mostly formed during the Afghan war against the Russian occupation forces
in the 1980s, the jihadi groups received weapons and training from Pakistani
and U.S. defense officials. When the Russians left Afghanistan in 1989, some
of these groups joined the separatists fighting against Indian rule in
disputed Kashmir.

As predicted by the international community, they soon got involved in
sectarian clashes between the majority Sunni and the minority Shiite Muslim
sects in Pakistan. Police said that hundreds have died in these clashes
during the past few years.
[...more...]


14. Muslims in India smash tv sets
AFP, Feb. 13, 2001
http://www.dawn.com/

NEW DELHI, Feb 12: Hundreds of Muslims in Gujarat state have smashed and burned their television sets to ward off evil spirits and prevent a new temblor, the Indian Express reported Monday.

The paper said Muslim priests in the region blamed the televisions for spreading obscenity and attracting God's wrath in the form of the huge January 26 quake, which left at least 30,000 dead.

During prayer meetings they urged believers to destroy their sets at the earliest opportunity.

''They have not acted according to my instructions, they have acted only according to what Islam teaches. And this will happen across the country and abroad,'' a Muslim religious leader said.
[...more...]


15. American Muslims complain of stereotyping
UPI, Feb. 12, 2001
http://www.vny.com/

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- The ''green scare'' of Islam is still plaguing
much of the United States, according to Sameera Fazili, 22, a Muslim human
rights activist. ''Even at Harvard University some of my fellow students
would ask me, 'Why do Muslims hate America?'''

Green is the color of Islam, the religion of six to nine million residents
of the United States. ''Actually, we love this country,'' Ms. Fazili,
executive director of Karamah: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, told
United Press International Monday.

''One reason for our love is that we can practice our religion more freely
here than even in many Muslim nations, such as Algeria, Uzbekistan or
Turkey.''

Yet, Fazili averred, this love was not exactly reciprocated. On Monday,
her group held a discussion in Washington's Rayburn House Office Building on
''The Treatment and Role of Muslims in American politics.'' They complained
about being stereotyped as terrorist sympathizers.
(...)

''The irony is that the visions of many North American Muslims are the
exact opposite of what some fanatics in other parts of the world are
fighting for,'' Fazili said in an interview. We are dreaming of a Renaissance
of the kind of Islam that prevailed in Spain 1,000 years ago.

''That was a tolerant Islam that lived in harmony with the two other
Abhrahamic religions, Judaism and Christianity. It was the Islam of science
and learning. ''
[...more...]


=== Hate Groups

16. Aryan compound sold at auction to Keenans
The Spokesman-Review, Feb. 14, 2001
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/

Coeur d'Alene _ ''I will declare the property has been sold by me for the Butler estate to the Keenans,'' the trustee said.

A few minutes later, he went upstairs to a federal courtroom where he informed U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Terry Myers of the sale via video conference. Myers issued a court order, formally approving the sale.
(...)

The property, its buildings and their contents were sold for $250,000.

To qualify for the auction, the Keenans' attorney earlier made a $15,000 earnest money payment to the bankruptcy trustee.

Gissell turned over another $80,000 check at the conclusion of the auction.

The remaining $155,000 was credited against the judgment the Keenans hold against Butler.

The $95,000 now held by the trustee will be disbursed to those with liens on the property, including a $65,000 lien filed by Sandpoint attorney Edgar Steele. He represented Butler in the civil trial that ended with the jury verdict in September.

The Southern Poverty Law Center forwarded the $95,000 to Gissell, who put the money in his trust fund to write the purchase checks. Center co-founder Morris Dees was the lead attorney in the successful suit.

The money will be repaid to the center after the Keenans sell the property, probably by April.

Outside the courthouse, Butler sounded angry.

''I am part of the generation that should have saved the world,'' Butler began, pulling his brown jacket around him on the cold courthouse steps.

''The whole system is controlled by the Jews ...'' he continued.

When a reporter asked him about the financial loss, Butler said, ''I haven't lost my honor.''
[...more...]



» Part 2