Exposing Japan's Human Rights Violations

Exposing Japan's Human Rights Violations

A new website launched yesterday exposes human rights violations in Japan tied to abductions and forced conversions of religious minorities in Japan.

Forced conversions and abductions in Japan are a hidden human rights crime that denies people the fundamental right to worship freely.  The site, www.StopJapanAbductions.org  will pursue justice on behalf of victims and hold the government of Japan accountable for their failure to prosecute these crimes against humanity.

The new website hosts news articles and videos of kidnap victims, as well as a petition, calling on the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission to hold Congressional hearings into Japan's violation of international human rights treaties.

The European Leadership Conference in a fact finding tour to Japan recently held a summit featuring world renowned human rights activists who attest to the abuses taking place in Japan.

According to human rights activist Aaron Rhodes: "This is a nightmare because public authorities [in Japan] are in collusion with criminals."

After many interviews with victims of religious abductions and forced conversions in Japan, Peter Zoehrer, a journalist in Europe, concluded:

• Police in Japan often refuse to help victims of abduction and forced conversion
• In some cases, police in Japan cooperate with the perpetrators
• In several decades, not a single case has been prosecuted in Japan
• Japanese civil courts treat the problem as a "family matter"

The website petition, from the International Coalition for Religious Freedom, calls on Congress to hold hearings before the end of the year about religious and human rights abuses taking place in Japan – one of America's great trading partners.  These hearings should be held by the Tom Lantos Commission on Human Rights, co-chaired by Rep. James McGovern (D-MA) and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA).

Invitation: CESNUR Conference - Turino, Italy, 9-11 September 2010

The 2010 International Conference

Changing Gods. Between Religion and Everyday Life

An International Conference organized by CESNUR, Italian Association of Sociology (AIS) - Sociology of Religions Section, and the School of Political Science - University of Torino

Torino, Italy, 9-11 September 2010

Università di Torino - Facoltà di Scienze Politiche - Via G. Plana 10

 

 PROGRAM

REGISTER here

Thursday 9th September

8,45-10 / Registration / Entrance hall
10-12,30 / Session 1 – Plenary / Great Hall (Room A) - Ground floor
Changing Gods

Chair: J. Gordon MELTON
Welcome Addresses
Roberto COTA (Governor of Piedmont)
Antonio SAITTA (President, Province of Torino)
Franco GARELLI (Chair, School of Political Science, University of Torino)
Massimo INTROVIGNE (Managing Director, CESNUR)
Enzo PACE (Chair, Sociology of Religions Section, AIS)
What’s Going On? Are the Gods Here, There or Everywhere?
Eileen BARKER (London School of Economics)
Diffused Religion and Prayer
Roberto CIPRIANI (University of Roma Tre)
The End of the Mass? Over-Reporting and Catholic Mass Attendance: An Empirical Study
PierLuigi ZOCCATELLI (CESNUR)

12,30 / Lunch (on your own)
14-16 / Parallel Sessions
14-16 / Session 2 / Room E - Ground floor
Pluralism and Globalization
Chair: Molly CHATALIC
Strange Bedfellows? Religious Pluralism, Exclusivism, and Certitude
Peter ADMIRAND (Trinity College, Dublin)
Religious Differences Lead to Linguistic Differences (Albanian Reality)
Rrezarta DRAÇINI (Luigj Gurakuqi University, Shkodra)
Europe Between Christian Identity and Multiculturalism
Alessandro IOVINO (Federico II University, Napoli)

14-16 / Session 3 / Room G - 1st floor
Islam and Globalization
Chair: Bernadette RIGAL-CELLARD
Two Neighbor Mosques in the Greater Lisbon Area: Proximity and Conflict Between Salafism and Sufism
José ANES (Lusíada University, Lisboa)
View of Male and Female Iranian Students. Gender Egalitarian Attitudes among the Women and the Younger Generation in Iran
Ehsaneh BAGHERI (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris)
Religious Pluralism and Qoran
Abrahim FALLAH (Islamic Azad University, Sari Branch)

Japan Overlooking Human Rights Abuses Claims International Media

http://stopjapanabductions.org

 

TOKYO, (August 13, 2010) – The highest levels of the Japanese government are complicit in religious freedom and human rights abuses, according to recent testimony of Toru Goto, a Unification Church believer who was kidnapped and held against his will for 12 years in Japan.

According to the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan, Mr. Goto has filed a lawsuit against members of his family, alleging kidnapping and torture, which left him confined for 12 years, deprived of food and proper nutrition and psychologically tortured in an attempt to make him renounce his personal faith.

In a letter addressed to the Diet of Japan and the Commissioners Reviewing the case of Mr. Goto, Rev. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray wrote, “I am very deeply concerned and dismayed to see that those who imprisoned Mr. Toru Goto are not being held accountable and that his case was simply dropped last December.”

Rev. Murray is Pastor Retired at First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles and Tansey Chair of Christian Ethics, Center for Religion, USC.

Over the past 40 years, thousands of followers of the Unification Church have been submitted to human rights abuses outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948 and signed by Japan.

Rev. Murray’s letter notes, “It has been brought to my attention that there are currently five Japanese citizens being held against their will: ages 60, 35, 30, 26 and 22.  Reportedly, one of these was just captured during this past month of March.”

Mr. Goto has filed a petition with the Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution attached to the Tokyo District Court to reconsider his case after it was dismissed earlier this year.  The Commission is expected to announce findings in the near future.

In a speech directed at religious freedom and human rights, United States President Barack Obama stated, “People in every country should be free to choose and live their faith based upon the persuasion of the mind and the heart and the soul. This tolerance is essential for religion to thrive, but it’s being challenged in many different ways.”

Organizations throughout America and Europe dedicated to religious freedom and human rights are closely watching Mr. Goto’s legal complaint in Japan.  Many are calling for the Japanese government to issue a formal apology for 40 years of neglect and shame.

CHINA: Persecution of Christians

Source: ChinaAid
August 17, 2010

GUANGZHOU--On August 13, 2010, after a brief detention by people from the Ministry of State Security, Pastor Wang Dao of Liangren Church in Guangzhou contacted ChinaAid President Bob Fu, requesting his assistance in issuing an urgent call for prayer. After translating the document, ChinaAid released the letter to Chinese media earlier today.

Read the full Letter from Pastor Wang Dao, requesting intercessory prayer:

Dear Pastor Fu,

Peace in Christ!  Thank you for taking great risks in fighting for the rights of the persecuted Christians in China, including your care and help for Liangren Church of Guangzhou. The rights defense attorneys who work side by side with you are like angels.  Wherever there is a need for them, there is their presence!  Please accept our heartfelt gratitude for you!  May God keep a record of the hard work you have done!

Sometimes, we are too naïve and innocent in believing that we can gather in peace for a while, but the facts have told us that we should not harbor any delusions (about our situation) for Satan.  Let me send you information of what we have gone through in the past two days.  Following is the intercession message of our church.  Please continue to pray for us in our fight!  Immanuel!

Your humble brother in Christ,
Wang Dao
August 13, 2010 

“Liangren House Church of Guangzhou has again been suppressed and driven away by the Guangzhou authorities!”

On August 11, under great pressure from the Public Security office in Guangzhou, Zhuying Garden Hotel was forced to unilaterally terminate the rental agreement with Liangren Church. It was a one-year lease contract the Zhuying Garden Hotel had signed with us, of its own initiative, on July 16.  However, the agreement was terminated after only one month of existence!  

Groend Zero Mosque - THE QUESTION: Religious freedom vs. wisdom

THE QUESTION 

Religious freedom vs. wisdom

The Washington Post Blog: On Faith

President Obama, after saying that building a mosque at Ground Zero fit our "commitment to religious freedom,"he wasn't commenting on the 'wisdom' of building it so close to 'hallowed ground.'
  backtracked, saying A Fox News poll showed that while 61 percent of Americans believe that Cordoba House has a constitutional right to build near Ground Zero, 64 percent believe it is not appropriate to do so.
Does Obama's hedging show a lack of ethical convictions? Does Hamas' endorsement change the debate? What is behind public opposition to the site? Can you believe in religious freedom but not believe the mosque is appropriate?

Read the posts from the panel here ...