Wolrd Religion

Lawyers for Amish sect leader Sam Mullet, who is accused of instigating beard- and hair cutting attacks against mainstream Amish men and women, have challenged the constitutionality of the Federal government's hate-crimes prosecution of Mr. Mullet and 11 of his followers.

They have asked a judge to throw out the case because they say Congress exceeded its authority in passing the Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009.

 

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Australia's Mental Health Minister, Helen Morton, says a new campaign by the Church of Scientology is sensationalist.

The 'Citizens Commission on Humans Right,' a Scientology front group engaged in an ongoing hate campaign against psychiatry and psychiatrists, has advertised in newspapers and distributed pamphlets warning people about changes to the WA (Western Australia) Mental Health Act.

 

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A Utah bill that would have disbanded a police department in a town populated by followers of polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs was short-lived.

Though aimed at the marshal's office that serves the combined border community of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, it could have "unintended consequences" on small police departments in Utah, said Chief Deputy Utah Attorney General Kirk Torgensen.

 

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The Utah Attorney General has asked the state supreme court to block a $5 million bill from an accountant appointed to oversee the United Effort Plan, the real-estate holdings arm of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

In a filing Tuesday, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's office argued that forcing them to foot the bill for the court-appointed special fiduciary "intrudes on a pure legislative function and therefore constitutes an invalid exercise of the district court's judicial authority."

 

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A woman who harbored Aum Shinrikyo cult member Makoto Hirata for 17 years faces a two-year prison term.

Akemi Saito, herself a former member of the cult, pled guilty in court Tuesday to sheltering the former fugitive.

 

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A couple from Carlton, WA pleaded not guilty today to charges of second-degree murder in the death of their 17-year-old son, Zachary Swezey.

Police say Zachary died because his parents failed to call for medical assistance, and relied on prayer instead.

 

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Tensions remain high in an Egyptian village where as many as 5,000 mostly Salafi Muslims went on a rampage over a false rumor that a church was holding a girl against her will in order to convert her back to Christianity.

The 14-year-old girl's father, an ethnic Copt who converted to Islam, had stirred them up on the mistaken notions that his daughter had converted to Islam and that Christians had kidnapped her.

 

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An inmate who murdered jailed cult leader Roch Thériault in February, 2011, has been sentenced to life in prison.

Thériault was in prison for killing his wife by disembowelling her, and for chopping off the right arm of another wife with a chainsaw.

 

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