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Scientologist Meier Ezra and Dr. Haim Mell, head of the Israeli government‘s Anti-Drug
Authority, are in Oklahoma to tour Scientology‘s Narconon drug treatment center to
evaluate its programs for possible use in Israel. Ezra says Narconon is already working well
in Israeli prisons to end drug dependency.
Today, more than three decades after it arrived to make the city it‘s international
headquarters, Scientology has become an ―indelible, if still mysterious, part of
Clearwater.‖ Some say the organization has cleaned up the once-decrepit downtown but
others believe retail merchants who aren‘t Scientologists, and people going through
Clearwater, avoid downtown because of the church‘s dominance there, where ―masses of
uniformed people [Scientologists] walk the streets, wearing belted green, navy, or russet
pants and crisp white or pale blue shirts,‖ and move ―in purposeful strides, with the
quickened footsteps of people with a mission.‖
Seas of David/Moorish Science Temple of America
Narseal Batiste, 32, head of the Miami-based alleged terrorist cell Seas of David, which
is accused of planning to blow up Chicago‘s Sears Tower, has been described as a ―Moses-
like‖ figure who roamed his neighborhood wearing a robe and holding a cane while
recruiting young men to embrace the tenets of the Moorish Science Temple of America,
a group founded in 1913 by circus magician Noble Drew Ali. The Moorish Science Temple
believes that all black people are born Muslims and descended from the nomadic Moors of
North Africa. Clement Rodney Hampton-El, another Moorish Science adherent, was
convicted in 1995 of taking part in a failed plot to blow up New York City transit tunnels.
Lawyers for some of Batiste‘s associates — mostly poor, young, Haitian-Americans— argue
that the government had, through an informant who taped their oath of loyalty to Al Qaeda,
entrapped them, luring them into doing more than they would otherwise have done. Critics
say the case is typical of the Bush administration‘s exaggeration of terrorist threats,
especially since Batiste had no ability to carry out his proposed attacks. The government
calls the case an example of the ―pre-emptive‖ strategy needed to discover credible plots
among those that are not likely to come to anything.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations‘ (CAIR) has asked the media not refer to Seas
of David members, recently arrested for allegedly plotting terrorist attacks, as ―Muslims.‖
The request [according to this report] is consistent with CAIR‘s policy of apologizing for
radical Islam and insisting, through disinformation, that the linkage of terrorist activities to
Muslim militants is simply the product of prejudice.
Smiths Friends
A father of 13 children and former adherent of the Smiths Friends Christian Community, in
Norway, has been sentenced to four months in prison for flogging his children over a 14
year period. He says he was simply doing what the leaders of the community ordered him to
do— beat the children with coat hangers, lamp cables, yardsticks, and birch-rods as
―expressions of love.‖
Terrorism
Canadian Liberal Party MP Wajid Khan, a Muslim in whose constituency recently accused
terrorist plotters resided, says, ―The onus is on our community to address this problem.
We‘re talking about a cult, a small number of extremists. The majority of us are moderates.
But these are the voices that haven‘t been heard. This has to change. We can‘t let these
people get their roots down here.‖ He called for an end to certain local imams‘ preaching
hate of Canadian institutions and suggested setting standards for imam training. He also
asked parents to stop ignoring changes in their teenagers‘ behavior. ―If a child is abused or
falls victim to drugs or other crimes, we intercede and seek help. Why is this [recruiting

Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2006, Page 93
youth into a terrorist group] any different? It‘s a crime, too. A very dramatic one, maybe,
but just a crime.‖
Transcendental Meditation
The British singer Donovan, who went to India in the 1960s with the Beatles to study
Transcendental Meditation, is planning a world tour to reintroduce the public to TM
founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s style of meditation. He will stress the power of
meditation to deal with ―troubles of the psyche: anxiety, anger, stress and fear, which all
cause illness.‖ ...Ashley Deans, former leader of the now defunct Natural Law Party of
Canada [which is inspired by TM ideas] is traveling with a TM group across Canada aiming
to persuade schools to put TM meditation into classrooms in order, they say, to reduce
children‘s stress levels and improve learning. Montreal physician Guy-Paul Gagne, who will
travel with Ashley, says TM is proven to cut health care costs by half and reduce cancer and
coronary deaths, and has the potential to increase average life expectancy by 23%. ...
Nine pastors in Smith Center, KS, have written a letter to the editor saying that a proposed
TM facility will compete with them for residents‘ ―eternal souls.‖ A local bank president says,
―Sometimes people forget that this country is based on freedom of religion. If what they
[TM] want is peace and understanding, I‘m all for it. We need to wait and give these people
a chance. I don‘t see anything scary.‖ A public meeting heard from residents of Fairfield, IA,
the national TM center, saying that the town would die
Unification Church
Former British Home Secretary Michael Howard says he stands by his 1995 decision to
refuse Unification Church leader The Rev. Sun Myung Moon entry into the country. He
did so because he felt that the UC leader‘s presence would not be conducive to the public
good — he cited the church‘s recruiting practices and its effects on families. A judge
overruled him, saying that Howard should have given Moon a chance to argue in favor of
admission.
The Chicago Tribune of April 12, 2006, reviewing the current status of the Unification
Church in the U.S., notes that the church held a mass wedding ceremony for 4,600 couples
on August 1, 2005, in Cheonan, South Korea.
The New York State Education Department has approved the Unification Church’s
Unification Theological Seminary application to offer the doctorate degree at its Barrytown
campus, in Red Hook. The degree will, according to the church, provide students with ―the
opportunity to enhance and expand their ministerial skills.‖
Unification Church (UC) minister Kevin Thompson — recently indicted for selling $1.2
million worth of protected baby leopard sharks with a street value of over $1.2 million —
take young people onto the church‘s boat, deploy the fishing equipment, and start talking
about God and committing oneself to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. ―In the context of our
church, we try to use boats as a training place for young people,‖ Thompson explained. The
Unification Church is a major player in the U.S. domestic fishing industry, particularly in the
sushi trade, but it is not known whether Thompson‘s operation — which sold the sharks to
wholesale pet dealers, who shipped them around the world — was undertaken with the
church‘s knowledge.
One-time Zambian Roman Catholic Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo recently left a convent
south of Rome, where he had been living in seclusion, and held a surprise news conference
in Washington in July announcing that his new mission is to persuade the Church to allow
priests to marry. A shocked Vatican says disciplinary measures could be announced soon. In
2001, Milingo married a woman chosen for him by UC leader the Rev. Sun Myung Moon
and escaped excommunication only by renouncing the nuptials. He subsequently said the
UC might have brainwashed him.