China crackdown on doomsday cult
2012-12-20 22:01
Beijing - Chinese authorities have detained around 1 000
people as they step up a crackdown against a doomsday cult called
"Almighty God" which has been predicting the world will end on
Friday, state media reported.
In recent weeks, hundreds of members of the Almighty God
group have clashed with police, sometimes outside government buildings, in
central Henan, northern Shaanxi and south-western Gansu provinces, according to
photos on popular microblogs.
The government says it is a cult calling for a
"decisive battle" to slay the "Red Dragon" Communist Party,
and which has been spreading doomsday alerts related an old Mayan calendar seen
by some as predicting "the end of the world" on 21 December.
Police have now detained around 1 000 members the
Almighty God group across some seven provinces, the People's Daily reported on
its website on Thursday, saying about 400 of them had been detained in the
remote western province of Qinghai.
The sect's followers have been distributing leaflets
saying that the world will end in 2012, state media have said.
China's Communist Party brooks no challenge to its rule
and is obsessed with social stability.
It has taken particular aim at cults, which have
multiplied across the country in recent years. Demonstrations have been put
down with force and some sect leaders executed.
Former President Jiang Zemin launched a campaign in 1999
to crush the Falun Gong religious group, banning it as an "evil cult"
after thousands of practitioners staged a surprise but peaceful sit-in outside
the leadership compound in Beijing to demand official recognition of their
movement.
