VOLUME 4 |NUMBER 2 |2013 27
News Desk
John Mouhalos, who in 2010 broke his
2-year bond for aggravated assault and
firearms charges, in April became the
first member of Rocco Leo’s now
dissolved Agape Ministries’ doomsday
cult to be taken into custody. Leo and
the rest of his inner circle fled to Fiji,
refusing to return to Adelaide to face
criminal charges and civil law suits. The
Australian taxation office stripped Agape
of its tax-exempt status as a religion and
demanded $4 million in back taxes.
(Australian, 4/15/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
While the now-jailed Tony Alamo was
still running his organization,
Christhiaon [sic] Cole told how he, still a
teenager, and his mother, both on hard
times, met Alamo at a restaurant bar,
wondering who would have the
cash to pay for [the beer]. She
moved him in, and that’s how his
‘Foundation’ started. I will never
forgive myself for helping them
put this together. All it was
supposed to do was give them an
income—not elect them king and
queen of the world. So why would
I say what I’m saying now? Because
you are about to give up your
children for a huge lie... Little girls
...are not brides. They are babies
being raped by perverted thugs
hiding behind the Bible. Little boys
are not men who have committed
crimes, to be held down and
beaten bloody... If you are one of
the kids, and you read this... you
think that you are all alone ...that
...you must have done something
to deserve this. That also is not
true. The truth is that you will be
found and there are people who
care about you.
(alamofoundation@csj.org, 2/16/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
An attorney for the jailed Tony Alamo
has told a judge that property in Fort
Smith, Arkansas, should not be
auctioned off to satisfy a $30 million
judgment against the former evangelist
because it belongs to his ministry and
not to him. The lawyer for the former
Alamo followers who have sued him
says, “That’s just a new angle to avoid
paying his creditors.” (Arkansas
Democrat Gazette, 4/3/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The Tokyo District Court has ordered the
Metropolitan Government to pay
damages and apologize to Aleph,
previously known as Aum Shinrikyo, for
releasing an investigative report in 2010
suggesting that the organization was
behind a 1995 attempt to murder the
national police chief. But the court
refused to order the chief of the time to
pay damages and apologize. Aum
founder Shoko Asahara remains on
death row. (Japan Times, 1/16/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Samuel Mullet, Sr., the Amish leader
who led hair- and beard-cutting attacks
on fellow Amish in Ohio, has been
sentenced in Cleveland to 15 years in
prison. Fifteen of his followers were
sentenced to terms ranging from 1 year
to 7 years. The government said the
attacks, which it defined as hate crimes,
were retaliation against Amish who
defied or denounced Mullet’s
authoritarian style. Mullet and his family
emphatically denied that their
community is a cult. (Washington Post,
2/8/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Vassarion Christ, who says, “I am Jesus
Christ,” leads a community of some 4,500
mostly Russians, many with professional
backgrounds, who reside in several
villages in Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region.
The members live ascetically, obey the
leader’s every instruction, and wait for
the apocalypse that he has predicted.
Vassarion is one of a number of popular
religious figures who have drawn
numerous followers to Siberia and from
within the vast territory in recent years.
Former followers, organized as Shamans
of the Last Testament, accuse Vassarion
and his priests of living in luxury while
his people live in relative poverty. Says
the Russian Orthodox Church’s
Alexander Dwokin, “If tomorrow Torop
[Vassarion’s birth name] tells his
followers to go and kill themselves, they
will.”Then there is Vladimir Sobolev,
head of a neopagan cult, who says he’s
the reincarnation of Confucius. There are
also numerous apparently unconnected
groups of people who worship the
Siberian goddess Anastasia, a naked
blonde deity. Her legend has in the past
few years inspired thousands of Russians
disillusioned with government and
urban society and the vacuum of values
to join a new-age, back-to-the-land
movement. Whereas foreign religions
such as Scientology, Mormonism, and
Jehovah’s Witnesses drew membership
in the early post-Soviet era, the new,
millennial groups have more appeal
today. Pro-Kremlin analyst Sergei Markov
says, “Feeling spiritually hungry, people
create their own tiny islands of survival.”
Prime Minister Medvedyev indicated
government concern when he said, on
the eve of the Mayan calendar’s
predicted date of the Apocalypse, “I do
not believe in the end of the world, at
least not this year.” Leaders of some of
these cults have been convicted or
accused of crimes: Konstantin Rudnev,
convicted of sexually abusing 15
followers and followers of Primorye
Partisans, a violent back-to-the-woods
group outside Vladivostok, accused of
killing two police officers. (Newsweek,
12/17/12)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Konstantin Rudnev, leader of the
Ashram Shambala in Novosibirsk,
Siberia, has been convicted in a closed
trial of rape, drug trafficking, sexual
assault, and “creating an organization
that infringes on people’s personality
rights.” He is said to have talked converts
out of their personal property in
exchange for esoteric and occultist
teachings and the opportunity to “clean
their energy channels” in mystical rituals.
Shambala, founded in the 1980s, grew
to number 20,000 at ashrams across
Russia. Followers, some of whom
thought they were signing up for yoga
classes, were urged to use drugs take
part in orgies centered on Rudnev reject
conventional lifestyles of work, study,
and children sell their apartments and
cars give him their cash and break with
their relatives. Originally arrested in
1999, Rudnev escaped from a psychiatric
26 ICSA TODAY
REPORT FROM France
Guillaume Garih
More people rely every day on Web-
based searches to find information
about their health or that of their loved
ones. The French senatorial commission
investigating cultic organizations’
influence in the domain of health
released a report that sheds light on
alarming issues associated with this
kind of Internet searches. The report
points out that a lot of readily available
information criticizes modern medicine
and teases interest for nonconventional
forms of therapies. Furthermore, search
engines such as Google do not
systematically list results objectively,
nor do they censor bogus sources of
information. The report goes on to
recommend the use of technical
strategies for governmental
organizations to enhance their Web
sites’ ranks. Ultimately, the report
advises that all Web-based searches
related to nonconventional forms of
therapies should lead to governmental
Web sites that provide objective
information.
In February, Luxembourg passed an
anticult law very similar to that of
France and Belgium. The word cult is
not employed in the text, but the law
criminalizes the “abuse of a person’s
weakness. The law’s stated purpose is
to reinforce prevention and repression
of cultic groups. There are no other
such laws at a European level. In fact, it
could be said that Europe as a whole is
going in the opposite direction since a
recent decision from the European
Court of Human Rights has mandated
that France pay 4 million euros in
damages for violation of freedom of
religion. This sanction was imposed on
the basis of France’s refusal to grant tax
privileges to religious organizations that
it did not recognize as such.
REPORT FROM Spain and
Latin America
Luis Santamaria and Erika Toren
Just last March, Vita Brevis published the
book, The Jehovah’s Witness: A Guide for
Catholics, written by a deceased Catholic
priest named Teodoro García González.
The book is the first in a collection by
the Red Iberoamericana de Estudio de las
Sectas (RIES) [Latin American Network
for the Study of Sects].
On the 21st of March, a federal judge in
Puerto Rico ordered all local districts in
his country to help Jehovah’s Witnesses
access closed subdivisions. According to
the order, each subdivision should give
the group a key, door code, or beeper so
it can access restricted houses. This
measure has generated a great uprising
among citizens, but there will be
sanctions against those who do not
follow the new regulations.
A 74-year-old female retired doctor who
had been hit by a bus on the 27th of
March died on the 31st in the Hospital
de Urgencias de Córdoba (Argentina)
alter she refused a blood transfusion
because she was a Jehovah’s Witness.
According to the Law of Patient’s Rights,
the hospital had to follow her wishes.
A judge in Granada (Spain) decreed in
March that the file is open against the
guru Antonio Javier Ruiz Plazas, leader of
Vaidika Partisana Sangha (also known as
Yoga House). The guru’s attorney
discredited some of the witnesses’
statements when they accused him of
manipulative psychology, slavery, and
sexual abuse. The witnesses have since
presented two complaints against the
judicial decision—one promoted by the
mother of a victim and another
presented by RedUne, a national
association against sectarian
manipulation.
On January 25th, 2013, the National
Institute of Migration in Mexico
detained more than twenty leaders and
members of Defenders of Christ,
including some minors, on charges
related to immigration laws. This group
mixes Christian elements with New Age
doctrine. Their leader, a Spaniard
named Ignacio González de Arriba, says
he is Jesus Christ reincarnate he offers
courses, healing miracles, and
opportunities for personal
improvement. According to accusations
by former followers, González exploits
the women, converting them to sex
slaves and requiring their participation
in prostitution.
The media in Mexio brought to light in
February that the Human Rights
Commission in the state of Morelos
(Mexico) was holding workshops on
“Meditation for Peace” for soldiers of
Isha Judd, a well-known Guru accused
of mental manipulation of his followers.
In Uruguay and Argentina, there have
already been court cases against Isha
and his healing and illumination
courses. ■
Correspondents’ Reports
ICSA_volume4Issue2_Final 8/9/13 8:31 PM Page 28
News Desk
John Mouhalos, who in 2010 broke his
2-year bond for aggravated assault and
firearms charges, in April became the
first member of Rocco Leo’s now
dissolved Agape Ministries’ doomsday
cult to be taken into custody. Leo and
the rest of his inner circle fled to Fiji,
refusing to return to Adelaide to face
criminal charges and civil law suits. The
Australian taxation office stripped Agape
of its tax-exempt status as a religion and
demanded $4 million in back taxes.
(Australian, 4/15/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
While the now-jailed Tony Alamo was
still running his organization,
Christhiaon [sic] Cole told how he, still a
teenager, and his mother, both on hard
times, met Alamo at a restaurant bar,
wondering who would have the
cash to pay for [the beer]. She
moved him in, and that’s how his
‘Foundation’ started. I will never
forgive myself for helping them
put this together. All it was
supposed to do was give them an
income—not elect them king and
queen of the world. So why would
I say what I’m saying now? Because
you are about to give up your
children for a huge lie... Little girls
...are not brides. They are babies
being raped by perverted thugs
hiding behind the Bible. Little boys
are not men who have committed
crimes, to be held down and
beaten bloody... If you are one of
the kids, and you read this... you
think that you are all alone ...that
...you must have done something
to deserve this. That also is not
true. The truth is that you will be
found and there are people who
care about you.
(alamofoundation@csj.org, 2/16/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
An attorney for the jailed Tony Alamo
has told a judge that property in Fort
Smith, Arkansas, should not be
auctioned off to satisfy a $30 million
judgment against the former evangelist
because it belongs to his ministry and
not to him. The lawyer for the former
Alamo followers who have sued him
says, “That’s just a new angle to avoid
paying his creditors.” (Arkansas
Democrat Gazette, 4/3/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The Tokyo District Court has ordered the
Metropolitan Government to pay
damages and apologize to Aleph,
previously known as Aum Shinrikyo, for
releasing an investigative report in 2010
suggesting that the organization was
behind a 1995 attempt to murder the
national police chief. But the court
refused to order the chief of the time to
pay damages and apologize. Aum
founder Shoko Asahara remains on
death row. (Japan Times, 1/16/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Samuel Mullet, Sr., the Amish leader
who led hair- and beard-cutting attacks
on fellow Amish in Ohio, has been
sentenced in Cleveland to 15 years in
prison. Fifteen of his followers were
sentenced to terms ranging from 1 year
to 7 years. The government said the
attacks, which it defined as hate crimes,
were retaliation against Amish who
defied or denounced Mullet’s
authoritarian style. Mullet and his family
emphatically denied that their
community is a cult. (Washington Post,
2/8/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Vassarion Christ, who says, “I am Jesus
Christ,” leads a community of some 4,500
mostly Russians, many with professional
backgrounds, who reside in several
villages in Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region.
The members live ascetically, obey the
leader’s every instruction, and wait for
the apocalypse that he has predicted.
Vassarion is one of a number of popular
religious figures who have drawn
numerous followers to Siberia and from
within the vast territory in recent years.
Former followers, organized as Shamans
of the Last Testament, accuse Vassarion
and his priests of living in luxury while
his people live in relative poverty. Says
the Russian Orthodox Church’s
Alexander Dwokin, “If tomorrow Torop
[Vassarion’s birth name] tells his
followers to go and kill themselves, they
will.”Then there is Vladimir Sobolev,
head of a neopagan cult, who says he’s
the reincarnation of Confucius. There are
also numerous apparently unconnected
groups of people who worship the
Siberian goddess Anastasia, a naked
blonde deity. Her legend has in the past
few years inspired thousands of Russians
disillusioned with government and
urban society and the vacuum of values
to join a new-age, back-to-the-land
movement. Whereas foreign religions
such as Scientology, Mormonism, and
Jehovah’s Witnesses drew membership
in the early post-Soviet era, the new,
millennial groups have more appeal
today. Pro-Kremlin analyst Sergei Markov
says, “Feeling spiritually hungry, people
create their own tiny islands of survival.”
Prime Minister Medvedyev indicated
government concern when he said, on
the eve of the Mayan calendar’s
predicted date of the Apocalypse, “I do
not believe in the end of the world, at
least not this year.” Leaders of some of
these cults have been convicted or
accused of crimes: Konstantin Rudnev,
convicted of sexually abusing 15
followers and followers of Primorye
Partisans, a violent back-to-the-woods
group outside Vladivostok, accused of
killing two police officers. (Newsweek,
12/17/12)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Konstantin Rudnev, leader of the
Ashram Shambala in Novosibirsk,
Siberia, has been convicted in a closed
trial of rape, drug trafficking, sexual
assault, and “creating an organization
that infringes on people’s personality
rights.” He is said to have talked converts
out of their personal property in
exchange for esoteric and occultist
teachings and the opportunity to “clean
their energy channels” in mystical rituals.
Shambala, founded in the 1980s, grew
to number 20,000 at ashrams across
Russia. Followers, some of whom
thought they were signing up for yoga
classes, were urged to use drugs take
part in orgies centered on Rudnev reject
conventional lifestyles of work, study,
and children sell their apartments and
cars give him their cash and break with
their relatives. Originally arrested in
1999, Rudnev escaped from a psychiatric
26 ICSA TODAY
REPORT FROM France
Guillaume Garih
More people rely every day on Web-
based searches to find information
about their health or that of their loved
ones. The French senatorial commission
investigating cultic organizations’
influence in the domain of health
released a report that sheds light on
alarming issues associated with this
kind of Internet searches. The report
points out that a lot of readily available
information criticizes modern medicine
and teases interest for nonconventional
forms of therapies. Furthermore, search
engines such as Google do not
systematically list results objectively,
nor do they censor bogus sources of
information. The report goes on to
recommend the use of technical
strategies for governmental
organizations to enhance their Web
sites’ ranks. Ultimately, the report
advises that all Web-based searches
related to nonconventional forms of
therapies should lead to governmental
Web sites that provide objective
information.
In February, Luxembourg passed an
anticult law very similar to that of
France and Belgium. The word cult is
not employed in the text, but the law
criminalizes the “abuse of a person’s
weakness. The law’s stated purpose is
to reinforce prevention and repression
of cultic groups. There are no other
such laws at a European level. In fact, it
could be said that Europe as a whole is
going in the opposite direction since a
recent decision from the European
Court of Human Rights has mandated
that France pay 4 million euros in
damages for violation of freedom of
religion. This sanction was imposed on
the basis of France’s refusal to grant tax
privileges to religious organizations that
it did not recognize as such.
REPORT FROM Spain and
Latin America
Luis Santamaria and Erika Toren
Just last March, Vita Brevis published the
book, The Jehovah’s Witness: A Guide for
Catholics, written by a deceased Catholic
priest named Teodoro García González.
The book is the first in a collection by
the Red Iberoamericana de Estudio de las
Sectas (RIES) [Latin American Network
for the Study of Sects].
On the 21st of March, a federal judge in
Puerto Rico ordered all local districts in
his country to help Jehovah’s Witnesses
access closed subdivisions. According to
the order, each subdivision should give
the group a key, door code, or beeper so
it can access restricted houses. This
measure has generated a great uprising
among citizens, but there will be
sanctions against those who do not
follow the new regulations.
A 74-year-old female retired doctor who
had been hit by a bus on the 27th of
March died on the 31st in the Hospital
de Urgencias de Córdoba (Argentina)
alter she refused a blood transfusion
because she was a Jehovah’s Witness.
According to the Law of Patient’s Rights,
the hospital had to follow her wishes.
A judge in Granada (Spain) decreed in
March that the file is open against the
guru Antonio Javier Ruiz Plazas, leader of
Vaidika Partisana Sangha (also known as
Yoga House). The guru’s attorney
discredited some of the witnesses’
statements when they accused him of
manipulative psychology, slavery, and
sexual abuse. The witnesses have since
presented two complaints against the
judicial decision—one promoted by the
mother of a victim and another
presented by RedUne, a national
association against sectarian
manipulation.
On January 25th, 2013, the National
Institute of Migration in Mexico
detained more than twenty leaders and
members of Defenders of Christ,
including some minors, on charges
related to immigration laws. This group
mixes Christian elements with New Age
doctrine. Their leader, a Spaniard
named Ignacio González de Arriba, says
he is Jesus Christ reincarnate he offers
courses, healing miracles, and
opportunities for personal
improvement. According to accusations
by former followers, González exploits
the women, converting them to sex
slaves and requiring their participation
in prostitution.
The media in Mexio brought to light in
February that the Human Rights
Commission in the state of Morelos
(Mexico) was holding workshops on
“Meditation for Peace” for soldiers of
Isha Judd, a well-known Guru accused
of mental manipulation of his followers.
In Uruguay and Argentina, there have
already been court cases against Isha
and his healing and illumination
courses. ■
Correspondents’ Reports
ICSA_volume4Issue2_Final 8/9/13 8:31 PM Page 28
