31)
“SGI Tries To Censor BBC”
This one tries to accuse
the SGI of “censorship” because it objected to the contents of the BBC
program. The article ran in the Japan Times Weekly a month after
the broadcast. It says:
A Weekly correspondent in London reports that Soka Gakkai is now embroiled in a dispute with the BBC, which aired a feature on the sect Oct. 14. A spokesman at Soka Gakkai’s Tokyo headquarters said a complaint was filed because the BBC had agreed to show a program outline to the sect before broadcast. Such a demand, of course, is tantamount to censorship — the kind of de facto censorship the sect has exercised through meetings with media executives, paid advertising and libel suits.Of course, filing a complaint after a broadcast you find incredibly unfair and biased is not “censorship”. And, libel laws exist precisely because sometimes unfair and biased reports are published or broadcast (though I don’t believe that any libel suit was filed in this case, despite what the Japan Times Weekly implies).
Of course, it’s the opinion of Nichiren Shoshu and its tabloid allies that anyone should be able to say anything negative about the SGI, and if the SGI says anything in response, it’s “censorship” and “restricting freedom of speech.”
32)
“U.S. Court Transcripts of SGI Harassment”
This is the transcript of
the judge’s decision in the case discussed earlier:
“Other Activities of the Soka Gakkai”. If it is read, without SG-eye’s
spin that it proves “SGI harassment”, it is quite clear that the only harassment
was by Nichiren Shoshu members trying to restrict the speech of the SGI
members through force and intimidation. The judge didn’t buy the Nichiren
Shoshu story, and on appeal ordered the Nichiren Shoshu members to pay
all the court costs.
33)
“SGI Harassment in Korea”
This is someone’s experience,
and of course only that person knows how he perceived his own experience.
But I do know that Nichiren Shoshu has a habit of blaming all its troubles
on “SGI harassment”. Here are a few of its “troubles” in Korea:
- In 1993 the Nichiren Shoshu office in Seoul was shut down because Nichiren Shoshu registered it as an “old peoples’ home” when it was really a temple. It sat in a neighborhood zoned for residences, and the neighbors complained about crowded parking during their services. Nichiren Shoshu, thus, violated Korean law and was caught and punished.
- The same year, a Nichiren Shoshu priest was deported for entering on a tourist visa and then engaging in propagation activities in violation of that visa.
- Another priest was deported, and two employees fined, for smuggling millions of yen into Korea.
- In 1998, still another priest was deported for engaging in propagation while on a tourist visa.
One may argue that the immigration laws in Korea are flawed, that there is a special sensitivity there regarding the importation of Japanese religion. Nonetheless, those are the laws of the state. The SGI — also a religion that originated in Japan, engages in chanting and holds large meetings — has managed to exist in Korea without anyone getting deported or fined. In fact, a number of local SGI organizations have received commendations from their cities for their good works in society. The SGI simply familiarized itself with the local laws, and followed them.
No, Nichiren Shoshu has chosen to enter Korea in willful contempt of Korea’s laws, and its troubles there are of its own making.
34)
“Washington Post - New Cults Flourish in Japan”: This site
is gone.
“Sect
Bent on Worldly Power”:
This article is from 1995,
and says:
To what end would Ikeda like to wield power? Soka Gakkai literature gives no clue, and critics worry that power itself is the group’s only concrete aim.Imagine: the sect bent on worldly power gives “no clue” as to why; and rather than conclude from that that the sect is not bent on worldly power, the reporter uses the lack of evidence as evidence.
The fact that Ikeda once tried to make Nichiren monks worship a statue that looked rather like himself is not encouraging.This one’s a hoot, and obviously the source is Nichiren Shoshu. Nichiren Shoshu has a picture of some sort of reclining angel, on which the face of Mr. Ikeda has been imposed, which they say was part of a mosaic the Soka Gakkai placed in the Sho Hondo (where the question of “worshipping” it came from is a mystery). No such picture ever hung in the Sho Hondo, and no one ever saw such a picture until after Nikken excommunicated the SGI.
More rebuttal of SG-eye: