China doomsday 'cult' arrests top 800
2012-12-20 09:21
Beijing - China has arrested more than 800 people in a
crackdown on a Christian sect which spread doomsday rumours and challenged the
ruling Communist party, local media said on Thursday.
The Christian-inspired group "Almighty God" has
been accused of spreading doomsday rumours apparently linked to the ancient
Mayan calendar and urging followers to slay the "red dragon" of
communism, state media reports said.
More than 800 followers of the sect, which state-run media
labels an "evil cult" - the same description it applies to the banned
Falun Gong group - have been held in a nationwide crackdown that began last
week, the Beijing Times reported.
Police detained more than 350 Almighty God members in the south-western
province of Guizhou, while in the north-western province of Qinghai more than
400 were held for "gathering unlawfully", the report said. Smaller
numbers have been held in other areas across the country.
Almighty God predicts that three days of darkness will begin
on Friday, and has called on its members to overthrow China's ruling Communist
Party, which it refers to as "the big red dragon", the state-run
Global Times reported.
It has also told believers that a new era presided over by a
"female Jesus" has arrived and that tsunamis and earthquakes will
rock the world, the Global Times said.
The apocalypse predictions have received widespread coverage
in China, thanks in part to the success of the Hollywood disaster film
"2012", which was inspired by the supposed Mayan prophecy.
Religious groups
Chinese state-run media have condemned the group in lurid
detail, with the China Youth Daily reporting that Almighty God "even uses
'sex communication', calling on female members to use their sex appeal to
seduce single men".
The sect was founded in the early 1990s, but has remained
secretive in the face of government intolerance of non-official religious
groups.
Group members use pseudonyms such as "Little White
Rabbit" or "Doggy" to conceal their identities, and are often
not allowed to carry mobile phones or other communication devices, China
Business View magazine reported.
China's Communist Party does not tolerate challenges to its
authority and has brutally cracked down on religious groups that refuse to toe
the party line, including the Buddhist-inspired Falun Gong, which was banned in
the late 1990s.
The country has a long history of religiously-inspired anti-government
movements, most notably the nineteenth century "Taiping Heavenly
Kingdom", led by a Christian convert who gathered millions of followers in
an attempt to overthrow the emperor.
- SAPA
