Why and how do young people get recruited by Muslim extremists?
Alex Gibney’s Scientology documentary will debut on HBO at the end of March.
Also: Psychic Daniel Perez has been convicted in the drowning death of a woman at his commune, plus 27 other criminal charges.
Plus: cult expert Steve Hassan’s YouTube channel.
Among today’s religion news briefs: a Canadian community tries to keep Scientology’s Narconon quacks from establishing a ‘drug rehab’ center.
A judge rules that a Jehovah’s Witness can be given blood if necessary.
Cult expert Steve Hassan talks with a representative of the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, and with a survivor.
And read this before you donate clothes to Planet Aid.
Officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police force will be in Texas from Dec. 12 to 16 to gather information about underage Canadian girls believed to have been victimized by Warren Jeffs, the convicted pedophile and leader of a fundamentalist Mormon group.
Earlier this year, RCMP contacted Texas authorities after learning of 31 child brides with connections to Bountiful.
Girls escaping deadly anti-Christian violence in India’s volatile state of Orissa face sexual after human traffickers falsely promise them a better life, human rights investigators claim.
At least four girls have been trafficked to India’s metropolis Delhi where they were “sold” to a placement agency, according to advocacy groups All India Christian Council (AICC) and Human Rights Law Network’s Anti-Human Trafficking Initiatives.
Former model Giselle Meza‘s career allowed her to visit exotic locations and world-renowned sights, but it was witnessing the worst violations of human rights that stuck with her throughout the years.
“The more I would go on great assignments around the world and if we’re in Africa for a shoot€¦we were using that beautiful backdrop for pictures and for making so much money,” she said. “But behind me were these beautiful little children and women that were really just experiencing a lot of need and injustice.”
Out of her desire to help victims of human trafficking, Meza created Puresa Organics, a faith-based company whose goal is to empower women through spiritual, mental, physical, and emotional rehabilitation. The company then gives rescued women new skills and provides employment so that they are able to sustain themselves and start a new life.
Partnering with Project Rescue Nepal, the company started in 2007 with twelve rescued women and has grown to 265 in three years.
Project Rescue is another faith-based organization that aims to provide a safe haven for victims of sex trafficking.
A Uganda newspapers has learnt that Police earlier this year, acting on a tip-off, sanctioned an investigation into claims that some wealthy people in the country are responsible for the spiralling acts of child human sacrifice in the country.
According to an investigating officer 40 children have lost their lives to ritual killings this year alone.