International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 9, 2018 33
terrorism legislation preceded the events of 9/11
and was designed to counter the type of violence
perpetrated by the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Japan
in 1995. In fact, that was its “principal
justification” (see Keiran Hardy, 2011, p. 341).
421F
4
This concern about religious cults seems timely
and prescient.
The Nexus Between Cults, Religion, and
Terrorism
The sarin gas attacks perpetrated by Aum
Shinrikyo in 1995 were not the only cultic
attacks that UK legislators might have noted
leading up to the turn of the century, although
they are an obvious example of a group that can
fit into the multiple definitions of a terrorist
group, a cult, and a religion. Some other cult-
related violence that would have concerned
policymakers include the 1978 events in
Jonestown, Guyana, where US congressman Leo
Ryan and four other investigators were
murdered, and where followers of the Reverend
Jim Jones of the People’s Temple were
murdered and committed suicide in a mass
atrocity. Legislators might have been aware of
the 1984 attack by Swami Bhagwan Shree
Rajneesh and his “Orange People” followers,
who attempted to take over the town council in
Dalles, Oregon by contaminating salad bars in
restaurants with salmonella typhimurium the
contamination caused several hundred local
voters to become ill (a pioneering use of
biological terrorism in the United States).
Legislators would have noted the confrontation
near Waco, Texas in 1993, where David Koresh
and his Branch Davidian sect of the Seventh
Day Adventists murdered law enforcement
officers and were involved in a standoff with
authorities that resulted in a conflagration and
scores of deaths.
422F
5 Authorities in Europe were
4 The parliamentary speech to the bill, by UK Home Secretary Jack
Straw (UK Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, 14
December 1999, vol. 341, col. 159), is cited.
5 Tactical mistakes made in that altercation can be attributable to a
less-than-adequate understanding of cultic dynamics, inadequate
regulatory control of firearms in the United States, and a failure to
take earlier action to prevent harm to underage girls and others at
the hands of the religious cult leader. The US Bill of Rights poses
ongoing strategic challenges to rational and orderly policymaking
in its vague protections for the right to bear arms and freedom of
religion.
acutely aware of the group suicides of followers
of Luc Jouret and his Solar Temple movement in
Switzerland, Canada, and France between 1994
and 1997, and they also would have noted the
collective suicides of followers of Marshall
Applewhite and his Heaven’s Gate movement in
California in 1997. Policymakers also would
have been horrified by the mass murders and
suicides of scores of followers of Joseph
Kibwetere and his Movement for the Restoration
of the Ten Commandments, in Uganda in the
year 2000.
These events, occurring in different countries
and involving different ethnic groups, or a
mixture of people from varied cultural
backgrounds, exhibit a number of similarities
and share one particular point of difference from
the groups that are the current focus of most
antiterrorist policies. The difference in common
is that none of these earlier groups are connected
with Islamic theology. They derive their
theological roots from Christianity, Buddhism,
Hinduism and a hodgepodge of other assorted
faith traditions. All of the groups noted above
do, however, have much in common. All have
been popularly described as cults. All were
guided by charismatic individuals whom
psychologists might well diagnose with
narcissistic personality disorder. All involved
strongly held, syncretic, spiritual belief systems,
and all of the belief systems underpinning the
atrocities (even the space cults can be described
as spiritual) can be characterized as religious
groups (or slide easily into the category) under
prevailing legislative provisions.
In Australia, the accepted definition of religion
is evidence of this, with even more support in
definitions provided in other jurisdictions. In
1983 in the Scientology case, the Australian
High Court offered a definition of religion that
has been widely accepted for administrative
purposes. The Court noted that the definition
entails “first, belief in a supernatural Being,
Thing or Principle and second, the acceptance
of canons of conduct in order to give effect to
that belief” (Church of the New Faith v.
Commissioner of Pay-Roll Tax, 1983, p. 136
terrorism legislation preceded the events of 9/11
and was designed to counter the type of violence
perpetrated by the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Japan
in 1995. In fact, that was its “principal
justification” (see Keiran Hardy, 2011, p. 341).
421F
4
This concern about religious cults seems timely
and prescient.
The Nexus Between Cults, Religion, and
Terrorism
The sarin gas attacks perpetrated by Aum
Shinrikyo in 1995 were not the only cultic
attacks that UK legislators might have noted
leading up to the turn of the century, although
they are an obvious example of a group that can
fit into the multiple definitions of a terrorist
group, a cult, and a religion. Some other cult-
related violence that would have concerned
policymakers include the 1978 events in
Jonestown, Guyana, where US congressman Leo
Ryan and four other investigators were
murdered, and where followers of the Reverend
Jim Jones of the People’s Temple were
murdered and committed suicide in a mass
atrocity. Legislators might have been aware of
the 1984 attack by Swami Bhagwan Shree
Rajneesh and his “Orange People” followers,
who attempted to take over the town council in
Dalles, Oregon by contaminating salad bars in
restaurants with salmonella typhimurium the
contamination caused several hundred local
voters to become ill (a pioneering use of
biological terrorism in the United States).
Legislators would have noted the confrontation
near Waco, Texas in 1993, where David Koresh
and his Branch Davidian sect of the Seventh
Day Adventists murdered law enforcement
officers and were involved in a standoff with
authorities that resulted in a conflagration and
scores of deaths.
422F
5 Authorities in Europe were
4 The parliamentary speech to the bill, by UK Home Secretary Jack
Straw (UK Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, 14
December 1999, vol. 341, col. 159), is cited.
5 Tactical mistakes made in that altercation can be attributable to a
less-than-adequate understanding of cultic dynamics, inadequate
regulatory control of firearms in the United States, and a failure to
take earlier action to prevent harm to underage girls and others at
the hands of the religious cult leader. The US Bill of Rights poses
ongoing strategic challenges to rational and orderly policymaking
in its vague protections for the right to bear arms and freedom of
religion.
acutely aware of the group suicides of followers
of Luc Jouret and his Solar Temple movement in
Switzerland, Canada, and France between 1994
and 1997, and they also would have noted the
collective suicides of followers of Marshall
Applewhite and his Heaven’s Gate movement in
California in 1997. Policymakers also would
have been horrified by the mass murders and
suicides of scores of followers of Joseph
Kibwetere and his Movement for the Restoration
of the Ten Commandments, in Uganda in the
year 2000.
These events, occurring in different countries
and involving different ethnic groups, or a
mixture of people from varied cultural
backgrounds, exhibit a number of similarities
and share one particular point of difference from
the groups that are the current focus of most
antiterrorist policies. The difference in common
is that none of these earlier groups are connected
with Islamic theology. They derive their
theological roots from Christianity, Buddhism,
Hinduism and a hodgepodge of other assorted
faith traditions. All of the groups noted above
do, however, have much in common. All have
been popularly described as cults. All were
guided by charismatic individuals whom
psychologists might well diagnose with
narcissistic personality disorder. All involved
strongly held, syncretic, spiritual belief systems,
and all of the belief systems underpinning the
atrocities (even the space cults can be described
as spiritual) can be characterized as religious
groups (or slide easily into the category) under
prevailing legislative provisions.
In Australia, the accepted definition of religion
is evidence of this, with even more support in
definitions provided in other jurisdictions. In
1983 in the Scientology case, the Australian
High Court offered a definition of religion that
has been widely accepted for administrative
purposes. The Court noted that the definition
entails “first, belief in a supernatural Being,
Thing or Principle and second, the acceptance
of canons of conduct in order to give effect to
that belief” (Church of the New Faith v.
Commissioner of Pay-Roll Tax, 1983, p. 136
