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Friday November 20, 2009

Scientology:

Scientology’s feet held to the fire in Australia: Struggle between a church and the state

‘Scientology is evil; its techniques evil; its practice a serious threat to the community, medically, morally and socially; and its adherents sadly deluded and often mentally ill.”

The above statement was not made by Nick Xenophon under the privilege of the Senate this week, but by a Victorian barrister, Kevin Anderson, QC, who had led a two-year government inquiry into the Church of Scientology in the 1960s. Then, as now, former Scientologists alleged that ”mind control”, physical and emotional abuse, and financial deception were standard practices, not exceptions, and integral to the church’s ”brainwashing” of its parishioners.
» Full Story

Thursday November 19, 2009

Peoples Temple:

Guyana’s Jonestown suicide site gets plaque

It has taken more than 30 years, but the government of Guyana has erected a memorial plaque at the site of the Jonestown cult massacre, a dark episode the South American country had long sought to downplay.

A simple, white stone plaque was unveiled with little fanfare Wednesday at the jungle clearing where more than 900 members of the cult led by the American preacher Jim Jones died in a night of mass murder and suicide on Nov. 18, 1978.
» Full Story

Scientology practices ‘putting people at risk’

Dangerous dismissal of psychiatry and mental health problems must be part of a Senate inquiry into the Church of Scientology, a Melbourne cult-counsellor said yesterday

Cult Counselling Australia director Raphael Aron said Scientologists put vulnerable people at risk by taking them off psychiatric drugs and treatment, instead treating them with vitamins and E-meter readings.
» Full Story

Tony Alamo:

Appeals court upholds removal of children from cult leader’s compound

Among other things, the rulings said the children faced danger of beatings and forced fasts ordered by 75-year-old evangelist Tony Alamo convicted earlier this year of transporting underage girls across state lines for sex and sentenced this month to 175 years in prison.

In one of the appeals court rulings today, Judge Robert J. Gladwin wrote that the evidence “presented a clear picture of the danger to children in the ministry compound at Fouke.”
» Full Story

Islam:

Recession: Muslim schools in UK under threat of closure

Many independent Muslim schools in England are under threat of closure, according to the Association of Muslim Schools (AMS).

The organisation, which represents almost 100 independent Islamic institutions, said many could not afford to stay open.
» Full Story

Hate Groups • Islam • Terrorism:

Born in U.S., a Radical Cleric Inspires Terror

In nearly a dozen recent terrorism cases in the United States, Britain and Canada, investigators discovered the suspects had something in common: a devotion to the message of Anwar al-Awlaki, an eloquent Muslim cleric who has turned the Web into a tool for extremist indoctrination.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., on Nov. 5, is only the latest suspect accused of perpetrating or plotting violence to be linked to the cleric.
» Full Story

Hate Groups • Scientology:

Australian police take up complaints about Scientology

Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd raised concerns about the Church of Scientology yesterday, as police began investigating complaints from seven former Scientologists.

As highlighted by senator Nick Xenophon, the former cult members allege abuses including coerced abortions, assault, imprisonment, the covering up of sexual abuse, the embezzlement of church funds and blackmail. [video]
» Full Story

Scientology:

1-year prison term for man who participated in cyber attack on Church of Scientology Web sites

A New Jersey man will serve a 366-day federal prison term for conducting a cyber attack on Church of Scientology Web sites in January 2008, Associated Press reports.

At a hearing Wednesday in Newark 19-year-old Dmitriy Guzner of Verona also was sentenced to two years’ probation after his release from prison.
» Full Story

Tuesday November 17, 2009

Hate Groups • Scientology:

Australian senator tells Parliament of widespread criminal conduct within the Church of Scientology

The Australian Independent Senator Nick Xenophon has used a speech in Parliament to raise allegations of widespread criminal conduct within the Church of Scientology.

Senator Xenophon says he’s received letters from former followers of the religion detailing claims of crimes and abuses. [video]
» Full Story

Judaism • Religious Fanaticism:

Israel Charges Extremist With Attempted Murder Of Messianic Family

Israel has charged Jack [Yaakov] Teitel, a Jewish-American extremist, with shooting to death two Palestinians and trying to kill others, including a Messianic Jewish family, who received a booby-trapped package in March 2008 that left their son critically injured.
» Full Story

Faith Healing:

When a child dies, faith is no defense

In the past 25 years, hundreds of children are believed to have died in the United States after faith-healing parents forbade medical attention to end their sickness or protect their lives.

In a nation founded on the free exercise of religion, the legal system struggles with parents who act both criminally and faithfully in the deaths of their children. This paradox has perplexed courts for centuries.
» Full Story

Monday November 16, 2009

Catholic Church:

Techie Holy water and geeky bishops

An enterprising Italian inventor has patented an automatic holy water dispenser for use in Catholic churches. Some parishes in northen Italy have already installed the fonts and many more all over the country are expected to follow suit. [video]
» Full Story

Islam:

Gaddafi preaches Islam to Rome beauties

A group of party girls got more than they bargained for when they were recruited to attend a posh do in Rome on Sunday night. Instead of canapés and cocktails, the 200 young women found themselves being encouraged by Libya’s leader Col Muammar Gaddafi to become Muslims.
» Full Story

Hate Groups • Islam • Terrorism:

Muslim terrorists smuggle fatwas promoting Jihad out of secure UK prisons

Muslim terrorists promote jihad from prison

In an authoritative report, Quilliam, a counter-extremism think tank funded by the UK’s Home Office, claims “mismanagement” by the Prison Service is helping Al Qaeda gain recruits and risks “strengthening jihadist movements”.

For instance, Abu Qatada, described by MI5 as “Osama Bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe”, has published fatwas — religious rulings — on the internet from Long Lartin prison, in Worcestershire, calling for holy war and the murder of moderate Muslims, it reveals.
» Full Story

Saturday November 14, 2009

Islam:

Muslim terrorist: Psychiatrist’s lap-dancing outings before massacre

The US army psychiatrist, a devout Muslim, who shot dead 13 colleagues at Fort Hood, repeatedly visited a lap dancing club in the days before the massacre.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan;s behaviour in the lead-up to the shooting spree was similar to that of some of the September 11 hijackers.
» Full Story

Prosperity Teaching:

Prosperity Gospel: Did Christianity Cause the Crash?

America’s mainstream religious denominations used to teach the faithful that they would be rewarded in the afterlife. But over the past generation, a different strain of Christian faith has proliferated—one that promises to make believers rich in the here and now.

Known as the prosperity gospel, and claiming tens of millions of adherents, it fosters risk-taking and intense material optimism. It pumped air into the housing bubble. And one year into the worst downturn since the Depression, it’s still going strong.

• In the same issue of The Atlantic: Lead us not into debt: Finance guru Dave Ramsey wins followers with a simple message: find God and lose your credit cards.
» Full Story

Friday November 13, 2009

Tony Alamo:

Evangelist Tony Alamo Sentenced to 175 Years for Taking Girls Across State Lines for Sex

Evangelist Tony Alamo was sentenced Friday to 175 years in prison for taking little girls as young as 9 across state lines to have sex with them.

The decision punishes him for the rest of his life for molesting children he took as “brides” in his ministry.

Alamo, 75, had denied the charges, claiming they came from a Vatican-led conspiracy against the church he led, called the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries.
» Full Story

Witchcraft:

Witches — real or not — persecuted and prosecuted

Witchcraft, more recently repackaged by some as Wicca, is a pagan and/or neo-pagan religion.

Sadly, as many of the items in our Witchcraft news tracker show, throughout much of the world both practitioners and non-practitioners of witchcraft are subject to persecution based on superstitious beliefs.
» Full Story

FLDS • Polygamy:

FLDS: Second sect trial set

Allen Keate — a member of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints sect — will be tried Dec. 7 on a charge of sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony that carries a punishment of two to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $10,000.

An April 2008 raid of the sect’s Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado resulted in the removal of more than 400 children and criminal charges against 12 FLDS men.

Last week a jury convicted FLDS member Raymond Jessop, sentencing him to 10 years in prison.
» Full Story

Islam:

US Prepares to Seize Mosques, Property of Suspect Muslim Organization

Federal prosecutors took steps Thursday to seize four U.S. mosques and a Fifth Avenue skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization long suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.

In what could prove to be one of the biggest counterterrorism seizures in U.S. history, prosecutors filed a civil complaint in federal court against the Alavi Foundation, seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets.
» Full Story

Thursday November 12, 2009

Hate Groups • Islam:

Ibn Warraq responds to Fort Hood Tragedy: The Heavy Cost of Political Correctness

Jihad is “a religious war with those who are unbelievers in the mission of Muhammad. It is an incumbent religious duty, established in the Koran and in the Traditions as a divine institution, and enjoined specially for the purpose of advancing Islam and repelling evil from Muslims.”

That is how it is described in no lesser source than the Dictionary of Islam, so we should not pretend surprise if Islamic terrorists see their mission in such terms.
» Full Story

Religious Persecution:

Egypt Detains Christian For “Praying Without License”

A Coptic Christian was believed to remain under police surveillance Friday, November 6, after he was reportedly detained for two days in central Egypt for “praying without a license.”

The Christian man said he was eventually released after two days on “compassionate grounds”, but added that Egypt’s feared State Security service has placed him under observation by three policemen.
» Full Story

Lord's Resistance Army:

Make peace — mom’s dying wish to rebel leader son Joseph Kony

Associated Press reports that the mother of one of Africa’s most notorious rebel leaders relayed one last wish for her son before her death Wednesday, according to a nurse at her deathbed: Make peace.

Norah Anek, 86, the mother of Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony, died after a long illness, said nurse Betty Akello, who was with her when she died. Her son heads the infamous Lord’s Resistance Army, which has waged one of Africa’s longest and most brutal rebellions, in northern Uganda.
» Full Story

Cults:

Inside New Zealand: How To Spot A Cult

Cult-like groups are on the rise in New Zealand. Now the two-part Inside New Zealand: How To Spot A Cult documentary uncovers what really goes on inside these often controversial groups.

The two-part documentary consists of ex-believers’ stories, and investigates the similarities they say exist between groups including the Exclusive Brethren, Scientology, Centrepoint, Gloriavale, Avatar and the International Church of Christ.
» Full Story

Faith Healing • Occultism • Witchcraft:

‘Witches, possessed’ flock to Kenya pastor Lawrence Omambia

Of course it isn’t all that unusual for a pastor to claim healing powers. Witness the blow-dried televangelists of America and elsewhere, who often advertise their dramatic healing powers in infomercials.

But in western Kenya the belief in the supernatural is far deeper, and the line between Christianity and the occult is thin at best.
» Full Story

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Religion News Blog (RNB), published by Apologetics Index, highlights news items and other resources on world religions, cults, religious sects, new religious movements, alternative religions, abusive churches and - to a lesser extent - related issues (e.g. ethics, human rights).

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Samples of the hundreds of religious news subjects covered in Religion News Blog include (click links for respective news trackers): the Alpha Course, Alternative Healing, Catholic Church, Christianity, Cults, Falun Gong, Hate Groups, Interfaith issues, Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism / Mormon Church, Polygamy, Religion Trends, Scientology, Transcendental Meditation, Unification Church, Wicca / Witchcraft, and many more.
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