Free Republic

On May 14, the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) declared at its award ceremony that the 2021 silver winner of The Bill Fisher Award for Best First Book, Nonfiction, of the Benjamin Franklin Award went to Minghui Publishing for its book Minghui Report: The 20-Year Persecution of Falun Gong in China.

Press Conference Los Angeles - Laura DeCrecenzo says she took her first Scientology course when she was six years old. She says she got married at sixteen, pregnant by seventeen, and was forced by the church to have an abortion. "I never agreed to have an abortion. Did I concede? Yes, I did. ... "

Flashpoint for US-China Relations in Flushing Showdown Recent events in Flushing New York, unnoticed by most Americans except for ethnic Chinese, may dramatically alter US-Chinese relations. For three years the Falun Gong, a religious group banned and persecuted by the Chinese government, has met outside the Flushing public library to encourage Chinese Communist Party members to turn in their Party membership. The activity attracted little attention until the devastating earthquake in Sichuan province and staggering loss of life put a spotlight on the Chinese government’s response. Since then, Falun Gong’s ‘Epoch Times’ newspaper and its website have relentlessly attacked the...

Tom Cruise Giving the Scientology "Salute" If there's any doubt that the enforcement of political correctness in the U.K. is turning ordinary citizens into criminals, a 15-yr-old youth was issued a criminal summons after he had written on a sign that Scientology was a cult. Police confiscated his protest sign at a demonstration against the Church of Scientology at their headquarters in London and then issued him a criminal summons. According to the British newspaper the Guardian, the 15-yr-old had written on a sign: "Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult". The police called it "abusive and...

Tom Cruise's Behavior and Scientology: A Link? The Debate Continues As the Controversial Religion Thrives By BILL BLAKEMORE Aug. 24, 2006 — - "In my opinion," says Rick Ross, who has spent years studying cults and religious groups, "(Tom Cruise's) meltdown is likely attributable to Scientology. He's made some bad career choices lately. He's damaged goods. How do you go from the world's biggest movie star to someone Viacom dumps?" The New York Times this morning said simply that Cruise has gone "into full Scientology mode." Indeed, his recent responses to Matt Lauer, inveighing against modern psychiatric care, reflect Scientology's...

A father and his two sons have been found guilty of murdering his daughter's boyfriend in an "honour killing" after she became pregnant. Arash Ghorbani-Zarin, 19, was found stabbed 46 times in a car in Rosehill, Oxford, on 20 November last year. The Iranian Muslim had been studying at Oxford Brookes University. Chomir Ali, 44, was found guilty of ordering sons Mohammed Mujibar Rahman, 19, and Mamnoor Rahman, 16, to kill Mr Ghorbani-Zarin, at Oxford Crown Court. During the trial, the court heard the two sons killed Mr Ghorbani-Zarin due to the "shame and dishonour" brought on the family by...

WFTS-TV Channel 28 in Tampa Bay reports that two Kerry supporters was arrested at a rally featuring John Edwards this afternoon. The arrests occured after a female Kerry supporter attempted to tear a sign away from a non-supporter at the rally. The second arrest resulted from a male memeber of the audience interfering with the arrest.