International Cultic Studies Association
(Formerly AFF, American Family Foundation) 

Table of Contents
 

Articles and Conference Reports for ICSA E-Newsletter

• Benjamin, Elliot.  On Avatar

• Huber, J.  I Found Freedom

• Neufeld, K. Gordon. The Grammatical Fiction: Totalism, Solipsism, and the Dispensing of Existence in Modern Literature

• Vere, Peter.  Sifting the Wheat from the Tares: 20 Signs of Trouble in a New Religious Group

Name Change Reminder: ICSA (Formerly AFF)

ICSA 2005 Conference in Madrid, July 14-16

Latest Issue of Cultic Studies Review

Education and Research News

• FECRIS Obtains Consultative Status with the Council of Europe

• Hal Mansfield Wins Award from the City of Fort Collins Human Relations Commission

• Janja Lalich, Ph.D., Promotion

• Minnesota Conference

• Daytona Beach News Journal Publishes Story on Carol Giambalvo

• Conference on Neopentecostal Groups in Saratov, Russia

• INFORM Seminar in London

• Conference: Society for the Scientific Study of Religion/Religious Research Association

• Linda Dubrow-Marshall, Ph.D. Article

• Douglas Agustin Talk

• February News from Info-Cult/Info-Secte

• Cursos sobre Sectas por E-mail de La Fundación S.P.E.S.

• Summary Declaration of the Conference "Totalitarian sects and the democratic state" at Novosibirsk, 9-11 November 2004

• Children's Spirituality: Call for Papers

• RIP: Tom Keiser, Ph.D.

• RIP: Glen Meloy

Books, Articles, and Web Sites Brought to Our Attention

• International Journal of Children's Spirituality – Special Issue

• Religioscope
• Communiqué de presse UNADFI concernant le rapport 2004 de la MIVILUDES (22 mars 2005)

• Fundación S.P.E.S.: La Nueva Era de Acuario, una Nueva Humanidad: La auténtica fachada de La Conspiración de Acuario, de Marilyn Ferguson

• Info-Cult/Info-Secte Collection Update

• Article on Cults and Spirituality

• Spanish GPA Article Now Available Online

• Apologia Report Summary of Word of Faith Critique (Vol. 9, No. 43, December 2004; http://www.apologia.org, for additional information, including subscription)

• The Staircase to Terrorism: A Psychological Exploration

• On the Psychology of Confessions: Does Innocence Put Innocents at Risk?

• Attachment, Evolution, and the Psychology of Religion

• Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality

• The Psychology of Religious Fundamentalism

• The Science of Savoir Fair: Psychologists from Varied Fields Work to Define and Understand Charisma

• From Angels to Aliens: Teenagers, the Media, and the Supernatural

• New Age. A Guide: Alternative Spiritualities from Aquarian Conspiracy to Next Age.

• Entrepreneurial Logics and the Evolution of Falun Gong

• The New Age Movement and its Societal Implications

• New Age: Exploration of Outlook-on-Life Frameworks from a Phenomenological Perspective

• The Satanic Ritual Abuse Panic as Religious Studies Data

• The Social Psychology of Good and Evil

Group News

• Catholic Church Re-examines Sexual Abuse Charges against Founder of Legion of Christ

• "Exit Counseling" Terrorists?

• Matthew Hale's Group Must Pay $450,700 in Attorneys’ Fees

• World Church of the Creator: Request from Te-Ta-Ma Truth Foundation to Media

• Dennis King Press Release Regarding Lenora Fulani

• AUM: Victims Still Await Compensation

• COG: Says Sex in Group Seemed Normal

• CUT; Competing for Succession

• Colonia Dignidad: Leader Arrested

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Books, Articles, and Web Sites Brought to Our Attention

International Journal of Children's Spirituality - Special Issue

Volume 11 (2) 2006
Children's Spirituality and Children's Rights

This themed issue will examine the relationship between children's spirituality and children's rights. The focus will be upon human rights as children's rights. Human rights will be understood in the widest sense and cover the full range of civil and political, social and cultural, as well as economic rights and the environmental context of these.

The issue aims to pioneer discussion of the spiritual lives of children in wider social and cultural, religious and political, economic and environmental contexts. The editor therefore requests papers from those able to provide an informed contribution to this debate, including academic researchers, teachers, policy makers (from governmental as well as non-governmental agencies), community and religious leaders.

The editors are delighted that Dr Liam Gearon, Roehampton University, London, UK, has agreed to be our Guest Editor for this themed edition. He can be contacted at the following address: Dr Liam Gearon, Roehampton University, London SW15 5PH, UK. Email: L.Gearon@rus.roehampton.ac.uk

Contributions should be submitted by December 31st 2005 and can be emailed directly to Liam or alternatively to Dr Cathy Ota, Editor, Education Research Centre, University of Brighton, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9PH, United Kingdom. Email: c.m.ota@brighton.ac.uk

For further information on the International Journal of Children's Spirituality, including notes for contributors, please go here.

Religioscope

Ésotérisme, chamanisme, hypnose: Silvia Mancini a fait entrer l'étude des phénomènes paranormaux à l'Université de Lausanne États de possession, extase mystique, transe chamanique, hypnose, exorcismes: l'historienne des religions Silvia Mancini s'intéresse aux phénomènes étranges qui impliquent des états de conscience modifiés, dans lesquels s'enracinent nombreuses institutions magico religieuses qui défient la logique occidentale. Passionnée par le sujet, l'historienne des religions qui vient d'être nommée à la Faculté de théologie de Lausanne, a mis sur pied un diplôme d'études approfondies (DEA) consacré à l'histoire comparée des religions et les états modifiés de la conscience. Un colloque international sur ce thème fera, en juin 2005, le point sur la question. - Un article de Nicole Métral, de l'agence ProtestInfo.

Communiqué de presse UNADFI concernant le rapport 2004 de la MIVILUDES (22 mars 2005)

NON ! Le phénomène sectaire n’est pas en régression, ni en France, ni à l’étranger. Alors que sort le rapport de la MIVILUDES, les Japonais viennent de rendre hommage aux 5000 victimes de l’attentat commis par la secte AUM dans le métro de Tokyo. Au Chili, l’ex-caporal nazi Paul Schaeffer, gourou d’une secte est condamné par contumace pour des actes de pédophilie et des actes de torture. En France, dans le département de la Loire, une association fonctionnant sur le mode sectaire, la communauté des sœurs mariales d’Israël et de Saint Jean, vient d’être dissoute. On peut craindre pour la santé des jeunes filles  qui ses sont retranchées dans les locaux abandonnés par leur gourou. A Nantes, le gourou de la secte Néophare a été condamné pour avoir incité un adepte au suicide.

OUI ! Le paysage sectaire a évolué. Loin de stagner, l’activité sectaire se diversifie, se complexifie,   des réseaux composés de microgroupes d’emprise se sont constitués. Ils sont présents dans le domaine de la santé, de la psychothérapie, de la formation. Ils mettent en danger les personnes mais aussi les enfants, premières victimes des charlatans.

Ces microgroupes ne doivent pas nous faire oublier que les mouvements sectaires internationaux sont plus présents et actifs que jamais. Ils continuent à faire des victimes tout en cherchant une apparente respectabilité par le biais de lobbying auprès des instances politiques françaises et européennes (Scientologie, Témoins de Jéhovah, Mouvement raëlien). Des condamnations ont été rendues ces dernières années, sanctionnant des délits  d’escroquerie, d’usage de l’abus frauduleux de faiblesse par manipulation psychologique.

Au-delà des actions de prévention et  d’information nécessaires à la compréhension du phénomène sectaire, les pouvoirs publics doivent dix ans après le rapport « les sectes en France », montrer à nouveau leur détermination et  se mobiliser pour contrer cette offensive de mouvements totalitaires, portant atteinte au Droit, à la dignité des personnes et aux principes démocratiques.

L’UNADFI continue grâce à son expérience de terrain et à son expertise à être le soutien et le défenseur des victimes et  s’engage à poursuivre le travail avec les partenaires  publics comme elle fait depuis de nombreuses années. 

Fundación S.P.E.S.: La Nueva Era de Acuario, una Nueva Humanidad: La auténtica fachada de La Conspiración de Acuario, de Marilyn Ferguson

Con el presente boletín les hacemos llegar la primera parte de un trabajo sobre la New Age publicado en la revista electrónica Abril Nº 89 y que, por su tamaño, lo enviaremos en tres entregas.

Fundación S.P.E.S.  -  Bolívar 216, 1° "A"  -  (1066) Buenos Aires  -  Argentina. Tél: (54 11) 4343-7702   /   E-mail: infospes@yahoo.es

Info-Cult/Info-Secte Collection Update

The most recent (April 2005) acquisitions can be found at  NEW ACQUISITIONS

For an integrated list of recent and past acquisitions please go to: SELECTED HOLDINGS

Les acquisitions les plus récentes (Avril 2005) se retrouvent à la page suivante: NOUVELLES ACQUISITIONS

Pour la liste complète et à jour de nos acquisitions, veuillez aller à: EXTRAITES DE LA COLLECTION

This is to announce a new section on Info-Cult’s website.  The catalogue consisting of more than 1500 documents is provided as a research tool for those interested in the area of “cult”, “new religious movements” and related groups/subjects. The new section can be found here.

Nous vous annonçons une nouvelle section sur le site web d'Info-Secte.  Le catalogue avec plus de 1500 documents constitue un outil de recherche pour ceux qui s’intéressent au domaine des « sectes », des « nouveaux mouvements religieux » et aux groupes ou sujets connexes.  La nouvelle section se trouve ici.

Article on Cults and Spirituality

Elliot Benjamin, Ph.D. has written, Spirituality and Cults: An Experiential Analysis, published in Ground of Faith journal: http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/-thegroundoffaith/issues/2005-04/index.htm

Spanish GPA Article Now Available Online

Psicothema has made the Spanish GPA article available in electronic format.

Psicothema, 2004, Vol. 16 , n 1 , pp. 132-138.  En este estudio se presentan datos preliminares para la adaptación a la población española de la escala Group Psychological Abuse Scale (GPA) (Chambers, Langone, Dole y Grice, 1994) para la medida del abuso psicológico en grupos. Esta escala es única para la medición específica de la extensión y variedades de abuso psicológico en contextos grupales. La traducción al español de la citada escala se ha aplicado a 61 sujetos autoidentificados como ex-miembros de grupos de manipulación psicológica, que pertenecieron a alguno de un total de 21 grupos diferentes. Los resultados obtenidos muestran unas propiedades psicométricas adecuadas para la versión española de la Escala, como instrumento válido y fiable, revelándose una estructura del abuso psicológico en contextos grupales compuesta por tres elementos o factores que hemos denominado: Sumisión, Control Mental y Explotación.

Psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Group Psychological Abuse Scale. This work shows preliminary results for the adaptation of the Group Psychological Abuse Scale (GPA) (Chambers, Langone, Dole and Grice, 1994), for the measurement of group psychological abuse to the Spanish population. This scale is unique in assembling the varieties and extent of psychological abuse in group contexts. The Spanish translation of the above mentioned scale has been administered to 61 self-identified former members of diverse manipulative groups, who had involvements with any of a total of 21 different groups. Results endorse psychometric properties of the Spanish version of this scale, as a reliable and valid instrument, revealing a structure of group psychological abuse composed of three factors labeled as: Compliance, Mind Control and Exploitation.

Apologia Report Summary of Word of Faith Critique (Vol. 9, No. 43, December 2004; www.apologia.org, for additional information, including subscription)

Faith, Health and Prosperity: A Report on "Word of Faith" and "Positive Confession" Theologies, Andrew Perriman, ed. for the Evangelical Alliance Commission on Unity and Truth among Evangelicals [3] -- "offers exegetical and theological analysis of such Word of Faith doctrines as positive confession, healing in the atonement, and prosperity as the inheritance of all believers. The impetus behind the commission's decision to scrutinize the movement was a concern about an [unnamed] American evangelist whose fund-raising strategies were perceived as a potential threat to the UK churches. ...

"[F]rom the perspective of the Evangelical Alliance a clear line of demarcation exists between orthodox evangelical doctrine and certain 'sub-orthodox' teachings of the faith message.

"In the first five chapters, the report offers a brief global history of the movement, summarizes some of its key teachings, and enters into the debate concerning their origins. Ironically, this effort to state faith theology systematically is an enterprise that the proponents themselves have yet to undertake. An obvious problem is that the doctrines promulgated by the individual Word of Faith teachers are so diverse and fluid that, at this point, attempts to generalize them are speculative at best. Another problem is that the teachings chosen for discussion are controversial ones that, divorced from the context of their Pentecostal/Charismatic and evangelical underpininnings, appear more greatly divergent than may be just. An example is the so-called second or spiritual death of Christ, a doctrine that many faith teachers do not espouse. ...

"Throughout most of the remaining chapters, the report presents exegetical and theological analysis of Word of Faith doctrine. Perhaps the strongest case the report makes is the one in which a description of the biblical teachings concerning poverty and wealth is given rather than a point-by-point critique of the prosperity message. ...

Sally Jo Shelton concludes her review with the observation that, "Despite its limitations and biases, Faith, Health and Prosperity is perhaps the best, most thorough book on the topic currently available." Pneuma, 26:1 - 2004, pp164-166. [7]

Faith, Health and Prosperity: A Report on "Word of Faith" and "Positive Confession" Theologies, Andrew Perriman, ed. for the Evangelical Alliance Commission on Unity and Truth among Evangelicals (Paternoster/Gabriel, 2004, paperback, 320 pages).  Available on Amazon.

The Staircase to Terrorism: A Psychological Exploration

Fathali M. Moghaddam, Ph.D., Georgetown University. (2005). American Psychologist, 60(2), 161-169. The author conceptualizes the terrorist act as the final step on a narrowing staircase.  Although the vast majority of people who feel deprived remain on the ground floor, certain individuals may be recruited into terrorist organizations that encourage them to displace aggression onto out groups.  Prevention is the best long-term policy.  Contextualized democracy on the ground floor should be nourished.

On the Psychology of Confessions: Does Innocence Put Innocents at Risk?

Kassin, Saul M., Williams College. (2005). American Psychologist, 60(3), 215-238.  Fifteen to twenty percent of wrongful convictions contain confessions in evidence. A sequence of pivotal decisions can result in false confessions.  Investigators can presume the guilt of innocent suspects. Suspects, naively believing in the transparency of their innocence may waive their rights. Interrogators become highly confrontational in response to suspects' denials. Certain commonly used influence techniques can lead suspects to confess to crimes they did not commit.  Police and others cannot distinguish between uncorroborated true and false confessions. Current practice needs to be reformed; interrogations should be videotaped.

Attachment, Evolution, and the Psychology of Religion

Lee A. Kirkpatrick, Ph.D., College of William and Mary.  Guilford, 2005, Hardcover, 400 pages.  ISBN 1-59385-088-3.  "…attachment theory provides a powerful lens through which to reconceptualize diverse aspects of religious belief and behavior. . . Kirkpatrick argues that religion instead is a collection of compromises of numerous psychological mechanisms that evolved for other functions."

Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality

Raymond E. Paloutzian, Ph.D., Westmont College; Crystal L. Park, Ph.D., University of Connecticut (Eds.).  Guilford, 2005.  Hardcover. 602 pages. ISBN 1-57230-922-9.  "From foremost authorities in the field, this comprehensive volume synthesizes the breadth of current knowledge on the psychological processes underlying spirituality, religious behavior, and religious experience. . . Coverage includes the neural and cognitive bases of religiousness; social, personality, and developmental issues; and religion as a meaning system."

The Psychology of Religious Fundamentalism

Ralph W. Hood, Jr., Ph.D., University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; Peter C. Hill, Ph.D. Biola University; W. Paul Williamson, Ph.D., Henderson State University.  Guilford. 2005. Hardcover. 247 pages. ISBN 1-59385-150-2.  "This book presents a new psychological framework for understanding religious fundamentalism, one that distinguishes fundamentalist traditions from other faith-based groups and helps explain the thinking and behavior of believers.  Steering clear of stereotypes, authors offer respectful, historically informed examinations of several major fundamentalist groups."

The Science of Savoir Fair: Psychologists from Varied Fields Work to Define and Understand Charisma

Mark Greer, Monitor on Psychology, January 2005, 28-30.  Briefly reviews in the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association psychological studies on charisma.  Discusses the role of language, timing, situational cues, and other factors.  Bibliography for further reading.

From Angels to Aliens: Teenagers, the Media, and the Supernatural

Lynn Schofield Clark.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.  292 pages.  Reviewed by Sharon Erickson Nepstad in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 2005, 44(1), 114-115.

New Age. A Guide: Alternative Spiritualities from Aquarian Conspiracy to Next Age

Daren Kemp.  Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004. 211 pages.  Reviewed by Miguel Farias in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 2005, 44(1), 119-120.

Entrepreneurial Logics and the Evolution of Falun Gong

Yunfeng Lu. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, June 2005, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 173-185(13).  This article documents the shift of Falun Gong from a primarily secular healing system to a new religion centering on salvation. Emerging as a qigong organization in China in the early 1990s that provided immediate healing treatments to practitioners, Falun Gong eventually developed into a salvation-oriented religious firm. Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, played a vital role in promoting the movement's transition. Facing the competitive qigong market, Mr. Li decided to differentiate Falun Gong from other competing qigong movements by offering a theory about salvation. He also adopted other organizational and doctrinal mechanisms that are useful in sustaining practitioners and preventing potential schisms. These strategies partly accounted for the growth of Falun Gong in the 1990s. This case study indicates that the religious economy model is helpful in understanding the evolution of Falun Gong, a new religion in contemporary China.

The New Age Movement and its Societal Implications

D. J. O'Neil.  International Journal of Social Economics, May 2001, vol. 28, no. 5-7, pp. 456-475(20).  This article examines the essence of the New Age movement: its reservations about the Judaic-Christian heritage, its pantheistic/monistic orientation, its individualism, its search for the mystical experience, its skepticism of modern science and technology, its openness to androgyny, its ecumenicalism, and its prediction of a new dispensation. The article traces the New Age predecessors and influences: Gnosticism, the Catholic potpourri, romanticism, the writings of C.G. Jung, and Theosophy. It speculates that the movement's influence - given its individualism, skepticism of structure and organization, and hostility toward modern methodology - will be implicit and indirect. Finally, it notes the ambivalence of the core ideology, lending itself to both "progressive" and "non-progressive" interpretation.

New Age: Exploration of Outlook-on-Life Frameworks from a Phenomenological Perspective

T. Norlander, L. Gard, L. Lindholm, & T. Archer.  Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 2003, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 1-20(20).  New Age is experienced as being a growing phenomenon. Taking the New Age movement in Sweden as its point of departure, this explorative study attempts to derive a purpose for this outlook and to then describe it from a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach. In-depth interviews were applied as the data collection method and selection centred on four men and four women professionally active within the New-Age movement. The domain was derived from three aspects with outlook-on-life conceptualization: theoretical assumptions of humans and the world, a central system of values and basic values. The results indicated that New Age is a religious outlook-on-life which is strongly imprinted with a global outlook, processes of development and the individual. It offers a 'package' or theme during an age of upheavals.

The Satanic Ritual Abuse Panic as Religious Studies Data

David Frankfurter.  Numen, 2003, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 108-117(10).  Rumors and alleged memories of Satanic cult activity swept through the U.S. and U.K. during the 1980s and 1990s, confounding scholars of religion, as well as jurists and psychologists, with their combination of tantalizing ritual scenes and dubious forensic evidence. This essay discusses the work done on these Satanic cult claims since the early 1990s in a variety of academic fields; and it critiques some of the scholarly responses from the field of Religious Studies in particular.

The Social Psychology of Good and Evil

Miller, Arthur G. (Ed.), Miami University, Oxford, OH.  Guilford. 2004. Hardcover. 498 pages. ISBN 1-59385-194-4 (paperback release due May 2005).  "This compelling work brings together an array of distinguished scholars to explore key concepts, theories, and findings pertaining to some of the most fundamental issues in social life: the conditions under which people are kind and helpful to others or, conversely, under which they commit harmful, even murderous acts.  Covered are such topics as the complex interaction of individual, societal, and situational factors underpinning good or evil behavior; the role of guilt and the self-concept; and issues of responsibility and motivation, including why good people do bad things.  The volume also examines whether aggression and violence are inescapable aspects of human nature, and how cooperative interaction can break down stereotyping and discrimination.

Send information on noteworthy new books, articles, and Web sites  to Dr. Langone at mail@icsamail.com.

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Group News

Catholic Church Re-examines Sexual Abuse Charges against Founder of Legion of Christ

An ABC News Report by Brian Ross (April 21, 2005), entitled " Sexual Abuse Allegations Against a Top Catholic Re-examined," says that in December Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, ordered that sexual abuse allegations against Rev. Marciel Marcial be reopened. "The charges against Maciel, the founder of a well-connected and well-financed order called the Legion of Christ, a conservative sect of the Catholic Church, date back to the 1950s. Eight men allege that Maciel sexually abused them as young seminarians in Rome, something Maciel has always strongly denied."

A May 24, 2005 special to the Hartford Courant by Gerald Renner, however, reports that the Vatican announced that "no action will be taken against the founder of the Legionaries of Christ" and that the founder's accusers are stunned by this decision.  "Neither the men making the accusations nor their canon lawyer in Rome had been told of the decision as of Monday, said one of the accusers."

"Monsignor Charles J. Scicluna, a priest from Malta who is permanent promoter of justice, a type of prosecutor for the congregation, gave new life to the canon law case against Maciel last December while Ratzinger was still in charge. His orders were to help clean up the backlog of sex abuse cases. The case against Maciel had been lying dormant for nearly six years.  

"On Jan. 23, the Legion announced that Maciel was retiring but that his retirement had nothing to do with the renewed investigation.

"In April, Scicluna traveled to the United States and Mexico, where he personally interviewed more than 30 people, including seven of the eight men who made the accusations, as well as several others claiming abuse who had not publicly come forward before.

"Vaca, one of Maciel's accusers, said Scicluna told him that he believed him and the others and that 'the church owed us a public apology.'"

"The charges were made public for the first time in February 1997 in an article in The Courant. In 1998, the men - all professionals comprising five Mexicans, two Mexican-Americans and a Spaniard - filed their case under church law. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith accepted the complaint as credible for further investigation but never proceeded, and no investigation was made."

An article by John Allen in the National Catholic Reporter of May 31st, however, said that the source of the initial announcement, which was released by the Legionaries of Christ, was long-time Maciel friend Cardinal Angelo Sodano of the Vatican Secretariat of State.

"What this means," according to Allen, "is that the statement did not come from the Vatican agency that ultimately has responsibility for deciding Maciel's fate. Officials of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith have refused to make any comment on the recent news reports, but a senior Vatican official told NCR May 25 that the congregation has made "no statement" on the Maciel case, even to the Secretariat of State."

The literal translation of the communication from the Vatican Secretariat of State is: "There is no canonical procedure in course nor is one foreseen for the future with regard to Fr. Maciel."  Allen says: "The formula 'is not foreseen' is sometimes used in Vatican argot for a development that is not officially in the works, but that is not completely outside the range of possibility. When papal trips are first rumored, for example, spokespersons sometimes say they are "not foreseen," only to have them eventually materialize."

Hence, a procedure against Maciel cannot be ruled out until there is an official announcement from the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is responsible for cases of clerical sexual abuse of minors.

"Exit Counseling" Terrorists?

A report by James Brandon in the Christian Science Monitor of February 4, 2005 ("Koranic Duels Ease Terror") describes a process in which Judge Hamoud al-Hitar and four other Islamic scholars challenge the theology of Al Qaeda prisoners in Yemen.

"If you can convince us that your ideas are justified by the Koran, then we will join you in your struggle," Hitar told the militants. "But if we succeed in convincing you of our ideas, then you must agree to renounce violence."

The prisoners eagerly agreed.

Now, two years later, not only have those prisoners been released, but a relative peace reigns in Yemen. And the same Western experts who doubted this experiment are courting Hitar, eager to hear how his "theological dialogues" with captured Islamic militants have helped pacify this wild and mountainous country, previously seen by the US as a failed state, like Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Since December 2002, when the first round of the dialogues ended, there have been no terrorist attacks here, even though many people thought that Yemen would become terror's capital," says Hitar, eyes glinting shrewdly from beneath his emerald-green turban. "Three hundred and sixty-four young men have been released after going through the dialogues and none of these have left Yemen to fight anywhere else."

. . . To be sure, the prisoner-release program is not solely responsible for the absence of attacks in Yemen. The government has undertaken a range of measures to combat terrorism from closing down extreme madrassahs, the Islamic schools sometimes accused of breeding hate, to deporting foreign militants.

. . . Seated amid stacks of Korans and religious texts, Hitar explains that his system is simple. He invites militants to use the Koran to justify attacks on innocent civilians and when they cannot, he shows them numerous passages commanding Muslims not to attack civilians, to respect other religions, and fight only in self-defense.

. . . If, after weeks of debate, the prisoners renounce violence they are released and offered vocational training courses and help to find jobs.

Hitar's belief that hardened militants trained by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan could change their stripes was initially dismissed by US diplomats in Sanaa as dangerously naive, but the methods of the scholarly cleric have little in common with the other methods of fighting extremism. Instead of lecturing or threatening the battle-hardened militants, he listens to them.

"An important part of the dialogue is mutual respect," says Hitar. "Along with acknowledging freedom of expression, intellect and opinion, you must listen and show interest in what the other party is saying."

Only after winning the militants' trust does Hitar gradually begin to correct their beliefs. He says that most militants are ordinary people who have been led astray. Just as they were taught Al Qaeda's doctrines, he says, so too can they be taught more- moderate ideas. "If you study terrorism in the world, you will see that it has an intellectual theory behind it," says Hitar. "And any kind of intellectual idea can be defeated by intellect."

. . . Some freed militants were so transformed that they led the army to hidden weapons caches and offered the Yemeni security services advice on tackling Islamic militancy. A spectacular success came in 2002 when Abu Ali al Harithi, Al Qaeda's top commander in Yemen, was assassinated by a US air-strike following a tip-off from one of Hitar's reformed militants.

Matthew Hale's Group Must Pay $450,700 in Attorneys’ Fees

CHICAGO - A white supremacist convicted of soliciting the murder of federal Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow was ordered along with his followers to pay about $450,000 in attorneys’ fees in a copyright case in which the judge sided against him.

U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan set the amount in an order made public late Monday in a civil lawsuit filed against a group formerly known as the World Church of the Creator.

The group, headed by white supremacist Matthew Hale, was sued in federal court by an Oregon religious organization, the TE-TA-MA Truth Foundation-Family of Uri, which claimed it owned the copyright on the name World Church of the Creator.

The Oregon foundation has repeatedly sought to disassociate itself from Hale’s group and said it does not believe in white supremacy or bigotry in any form.

Hale, 33, became enraged after Lefkow ordered his group to stop using the name. He was later convicted of urging an undercover FBI informant to murder her in revenge for her order. He was sentenced April 6 to 40 years in prison.

Der-Yeghiayan, who took over the copyright case from Lefkow, awarded all the money that attorneys for the TE-TA-MA Truth Foundation requested for work on the case from February 2000 through December 2003.

How much of the $450,747 they will be able to collect remains uncertain. Federal law enforcement officials say Hale’s followers have scattered and joined other groups.

Attorneys who represented the TE-TA-MA Truth Foundation were not available for comment Monday night. Nor was Todd Riordan, an attorney who represented the white supremacist group at the start of the lawsuit.

Weeks ago, Hale filed a brief with the court saying “to fine the church (which is a collection of individuals, including myself) for every minute of time the plaintiffs counsel spent on this case would be a travesty.”

Hale’s group came under suspicion after Lefkow on Feb. 28 found her husband and 89-year-old mother shot and killed in the family’s home. The assailant later was found to be a disgruntled man whose medical malpractice lawsuit had been dismissed by several judges. The man killed himself less than two weeks later.

From AP in MSNBC News, May 23, 2005

World Church of the Creator: Request from Te-Ta-Ma Truth Foundation to Media

The following is from the Church of the Creator Web Site:

Hundreds of COTC [Church of the Creator] Ordained Associate Ministers are actively serving humanity in the USA and many other countries throughout the world. Encouraging and living, peace, cooperation, harmony and understanding, regardless of race, color or creed. The confusion with Matthew Hale's association, white supremacists, hate/fear based philosophies is therefore particularly distasteful and offensive.

It would be ironic and additionally damaging to our organization if, in reporting on Mr. Hale's conviction, Judge Lefkow's tragic loss of family members or describing the investigation, the media were to continue to use  "World Church of the Creator" or "Church of the Creator."  The white supremacists have by Injunction and Final Judgment been ordered to cease using our trademark. Mr. Hale and his associates are "The Creativity Movement." Accordingly, we ask the media use their name, not our trademark, in referring to Mr. Hale's organization.

If the trademark Church Of The Creator® is used within publication, a statement similar to the following would be appreciated:

The registered trademark Church Of The Creator® belongs to TE-TA-MA Truth Foundation, a nonprofit Religious Organization, encouraging universal love and respect for all peoples, not associated or to be confused with Matthew Hale and white supremacists beliefs.

Dennis King Press Release Regarding Lenora Fulani

A document that journalist Dennis King released on the Internet on May 20, 2005 is entitled "179 Questions for Lenora Fulani."  Calling the Newman-Fulani group a cult, the document criticizes Mayor Bloomberg for embracing this group. A press release on the document says that:

1.      The FBI in California has been investigating allegations of charities fraud at a Newmanite-controlled family health center in Los Angeles. The allegations involve Newmanite social therapists as well as the All Stars Project, the cult's youth charity that was the recipient of an $8.5 million tax-free loan from New York City's Industrial Development Agency in 2002. The CEO of the Los Angeles health facility is a member of the national board of directors of All Stars and a longtime leading figure in Newman and Fulani's "central core" (the so-called International Workers Party).

2.      A complaint regarding All Stars has been filed with New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer by a former employee of a Los Angeles children's health center run by a follower of Mr. Newman. The employee was sent by her boss to New York for "training" at All Stars in 2004. The complainant alleges that All Stars vastly exaggerates the number of children it works with, and that she personally witnessed emotional abuse and labor exploitation of All Stars kids brought from Oakland to New York for a bogus leadership training program and housed in a "flop house."

3.      Ms. Fulani provided false information to Mayor Giuliani in a 2001 letter asking for a meeting regarding All Stars' application for the IDA bond, not only exaggerating the size of the All Stars youth program but presenting the application as being for "youth development" when in fact the facility to be purchased with IDA money was intended at least as much for the adult theater component of All Stars, which puts on anti-Semitic plays written by Mr. Newman.

4.      The IDA's due diligence apparently failed to look at the sordid history of past Newmanite programs that worked with kids, including the now defunct Barbara Taylor School which practiced Mr. Newman's "social therapy" on pre-teen children, offered inappropriate sex education based on the Newman cult's peculiar ideas on sex, and sent its pupils to Washington DC in buses to demonstrate in support of Libya's Col. Gadahfi at the height of his terror campaign against the United States.

5.      The cult's advocacy of the need to destroy the "bourgeois family" and build a revolutionary "development community" in its place--as well as the cult's promotion of Mr. Newman's doctrine of "friendosexualism"-- calls into question the propriety of the city providing subsidies for All Stars, which works with kids from age six through the teen years.

6.      Cult leaders in the 1980s issued statements that appeared to defend or make light of adult sex abuse of children (as in the case of the North American Man-Boy Love Association, or NAMBLA), and the cult has provided political and/or legal support to a string of notorious child abusers.

The press release further states:

The Wall Street and corporate leaders who serve on the All Stars board (apparently with no knowledge of the history of the Newman cult) are listed in the document, which includes a question to Ms. Fulani about whether or not she has ever informed these individuals that several of their fellow board members, as well as the top officers of All Stars, are secret cadre of an underground revolutionary organization founded by Mr. Newman.

The document calls on the New York City Council to hold hearings on the 2002 All Stars bond to determine why adequate due diligence was not performed by the IDA staff and whether pressure was exerted by either Mayor Bloomberg or Governor Pataki to facilitate the application's approval. (Newman and Fulani's Independence Party ballot line provided Mayor Bloomberg with his margin of victory in the 2001 general election, after which Gov. Pataki reached out to the party. The All Stars loan was given final approval by the IDA board on May 14, 2002. Four days later, the governor was endorsed for reelection by the Independence Party state convention.)

"Let's have full public hearings," Mr. King writes in the final paragraph. "I'm sure that many ex-Newmanites would be willing to come forward and reveal things before the TV cameras in the City Council chambers that would send shock waves through New York politics."

AUM: Victims Still Await Compensation

The government is moving painfully slowly to provide financial compensation and medical and psychological care to several thousand victims of the Aum Shinrikyo gas attacks. A victims’ representative says: “Is it right for the government just to pity us, think we were just unlucky at that moment, and do nothing?” Aum, now called Aleph, is paying some compensation. (Kyodo News Service, Internet, 3/14/05)

COG: Says Sex in Group Seemed Normal

Kristi La Mattery, who grew up in the Children of God, says in a series of interviews with the Chronicle that she and her sister were trained to believe sex among children and adults in the group, and the use of sex to draw in new members, was a sacred duty. She tells how she once fell in love with a convenience store co-worker, a fundamentalist Christian boy, whom she shocked when she initiated sexual relations, which she believed to be benign ‘witnessing.’ (Don Lattin, San Francisco Chronicle, Internet, 2/27/05)

CUT: Competing for Succession

As former Church Universal and Triumphant leader Elizabeth Clare Prophet continues to decline, suffering from Alzheimer’s, “There are at least eight people currently claiming the mantle of Messenger,” according to the CUT board of directors, which rejects the claims while urging members to continue to support Prophet. Meanwhile, CUT recently broke ground for a new office building in Corwin Springs, MT, but without the controversy and notoriety that attended the church’s activities in the 1980s and 1990s.

A professor who published a book on CUT says the church, which has lost a great many members after a predicted apocalypse did not arrive, says CUT is trying to refocus and move away from origins “steeped in conspiracy and feelings of besiegement.” (Scott McMillon [sic], Bozeman Chronicle, Internet, 3/13/05)

Colonia Dignidad: Leader Arrested

Colonia Dignidad leader Paul Schafer, convicted in absentia more than a year ago for sexually abusing 26 children in the group’s compound south of Santiago, Chile, and missing since 1997, has been arrested in Argentina. Followers, many of them elderly German immigrants, saw Schafer, a charismatic World War II German army nurse, as a God-like guru, and followed him blindly. (Mercosure, Internet, 3/11/05)

Schafer, who began a ministry in Germany in the 1950s for the protection of war orphans, and then fled child abuse charges, allegedly abused a different child almost every night at Colonia Dignidad. A magistrate concluded that Schafer used these sexual relationships as an “instrument to guarantee loyalty,” and employed religion as “a way to gain submission.” He told the children: “Do you want to go with me or go to Hell?” (Nouvelobs.com [Nouvelle Observateur], Internet, 3/11/05)

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