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Opus Dei
“Balanced Assessment” of Group
A forthcoming book on Opus Dei by the National Catholic Reporter’s John Allen will
challenge the view that the organization is cult-like and suggest that much of the negative
perception stems from hostility shown by the Jesuits during the 1930s and 1940s, when the
rise of Opus Dei allegedly drew Spanish recruits away from the older, more established
religious order. (Catholic News, Internet, 3/30/05)
Order of St. Charbel/Little Pebble
Leader Guilty of Sexual Abuse
William Kamm, also known as Little Pebble, has been found guilty in Sydney of
―indecently and sexually assaulting‖ a 15-year-old girl at his religious community, the
Order of St. Charbel, after she agreed to become one of his ―spiritual‖ wives. Kamm says
the sexually overt letters he wrote the girl after she accepted his marriage offer showed
only what he intended should happen, not that it actually took place. (ABC News [Australia],
Internet, 7/8/05)
Kamm believes that the Virgin Mary chose him to spawn a new race that would survive the
end of the world. He reportedly said he received messages directly from the Virgin on the
thirteenth day of every month. The victimized girl testified that Kamm told her the Virgin
Mary gave permission for him to have an ―intimate union‖ with her. She said her family was
pleased that she had been chosen as one of Kamm‘s queens and considered it a great
honor. (Rebecca Senescall, Ilawarra Mercury, Internet, 6/15/05 AAP in MSN 9 News,
Australia, Internet, 6/16/05)
Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO)
Suit Over “Pedophile Cult” Allegation
The Ordo Templi Orientis, a secretive international society, has sued Melbourne
psychologist Reina Michaelson, an anti-child abuse activist, over her internet assertion that
OTO is a pedophile cult that practices satanic rituals that included animal and child
sacrifices. An OTO spokesman said: ―What is contained on the website could incite hatred
and lead to violence against members of the OTO.‖ Michaelson says that OTO beliefs,
expressed in its Book of Laws, ―are not lawful religious beliefs.‖
OTO, founded in Germany in 1902 and devoted to the religion of Thalema as taught by the
[late] occultist and mystic Aleister Crowley, does not actively recruit or advertise. (Kate
Uebergang, Melbourne Herald Sun, Internet, 5/31/05)
Panawave/Chino Shohokai
Leader Wins Defamation Decision
Chino Shokokai, the parent organization of Panawave, and leader Yuko Chino, have
been awarded two million yen by a Tokyo District Court that ruled the weekly magazine
Shukan Bunshan had defamed Panawave by claiming the cult was to blame for a railway
disaster in 1998. The magazine said it was only reporting what authorities said at the time.
Panawave gained great attention when it traveled through central Japan last year ―covering
areas completely in white cloth as it crawled along.‖ (Mainichi Shimbun, Internet, 5/14/05)
Polygamy
Building Criminal Case

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Tapestry Against Polygamy is gathering evidence to help make it easy for now-reluctant
Utah authorities to prosecute people who practice polygamy. However, a recent bigamy
case built against the leader of a small polygamist sect in Utah was not prosecuted by the
state because the allegedly aggrieved party was not a juvenile. (KSL News Radio, Internet,
3/15/05)
Police Officers Lose Certification
The Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training Council has revoked the certifications of two
polygamous police officers, one of them the chief of the Colorado City department.
Polygamy is a felony under state law. (Michael N. Westley, Salt Lake Tribune, Internet,
3/24/05)
Saviour Sect
Islamic Militant Cult
Sheikh Omar Bakr Mohammad, a London-based Muslim cleric of Syrian origin who has
been investigated by police for using inflammatory language, preaches a Muslim supremacy
that looks forward to taking the reins of government through a core of some forty followers,
many of them jobless young men from Bangladesh, including teenagers.
Bakr Mohammad is behind an organization named the Saviour Sect, created to replaced
Al-Muhajiroun, which Bakr Mohammad closed when it was investigated by anti-terrorist
police following its praise of the September 11 hijackers as the ―Magnificent 19.‖
Visiting speaker Sheikh Omar Brooks, a Caribbean native, told a group meeting — which
included schoolchildren in T-shirts inscribed ―mujaheddin‖ and ―warriors of Allah‖ — said he
didn‘t want to die ―like an old woman,‖ in bed. ―I want to be blown into pieces, with my
hands in one place and my feet in another.‖ He told a group of women in burqas to help by
making bombs.
Bakr‘s sermons to followers stress that Muslims in Britain are under attack that Muslims,
who are superior, should not associate with non-Muslims and that they should ―cover the
land with blood through martyrdom, martyrdom, martyrdom.‖ Bakr Mohammed referred to
the London bombers as the ―fantastic four,‖ and said that his publicly expressed concern for
the ―innocent‖ who died applied only to Muslims. (Insight Team, Sunday Times, Internet,
8/7/05
Scientology
“Enlightenment’s Dark Side”
The Buffalo News has published a four-part report on the Church of Scientology entitled
―Enlightenment‘s Dark Side,‖ which reviews the philosophy, practices, and local activities of
the organization. The series includes stories of individuals in the Buffalo area who say they,
or people they know, have been harmed by Scientology.
One account relates how Scientology parents, conforming to Scientology‘s anti-psychiatry
policy, rejected the use of psychotropic drugs to treat their schizophrenic son, who grew to
share their medical views and in the end murdered his mother because he felt the vitamins
she prescribed were harmful.
The News report also tells how Rich and Anne-Marie Dunning became high-level church staff
members before concluding that Scientology was an authoritarian, money making cult that
brainwashes its followers. They say the church demanded absolute obedience to its policies
and controlled members through a security system that included use of personal files, a lie
detector-like device, and a system for informing on others, even spouses.