Case studies of violations of freedom of religion around the world included references to Africa, Japan, and the abuse of taxes to harass spiritual movements in Taiwan.
by Daniela Bovolenta
An article already published in Bitter Winter on May 23rd, 2024.
On May 11, 2024, the Italian chapter of the International Religious Freedom Roundtable and the interreligious committee Fedinsieme (Faiths Together) organized a roundtable discussion on freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) at Terrazza Solferino in Turin, Italy.
Different groups presented problems of FoRB they experience in different parts of the world. Attorney Francesco Curto, President of Fedinsieme, chaired the Roundtable and noted that interreligious dialogue and FoRB cannot be separated. Those who are not prepared to defend others when their freedom is threatened are not really part of a genuine dialogue, he said.
Massimo Introvigne, an Italian sociologist who serves as editor-in-chief of “Bitter Winter,” introduced the panel discussion by observing that different incidents where FoRB is denied throughout the world are not isolated. They all derive from the same ideology, promoted by both state and non-state actors, distinguishing between “good” religions and “bad” religious groups stigmatized with words such as “religious fraud” or “cult.” In democratic countries, the tool for discriminating against such groups is often the use of fabricated tax bills, as the Tai Ji Men case in Taiwan and others involving the Jehovah’s Witnesses and other groups in France demonstrated.
Refugees from China presented the problem of having religion-based refugee claims accepted by asylum commissions in Europe. Maria Gabriella Mieli from UPF (Universal Peace Federation), an NGO founded by the late Reverend Moon and his wife Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, the leaders of the Unification Church, later called Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, discussed the alarming campaign against “cults” in Japan after the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022. Abe was shot by a man who wanted to protest the politician’s participation in UPF initiatives. The assassin claimed he hated the Unification Church because in 2002 his mother went bankrupt for what he characterized as excessive donations to the religious movement. Those hostile to the Unification Church/Family Federation managed to persuade the public opinion and the government that the real cause of the crime was the religious movement’s practice of soliciting donations. The government filed a court case seeking the dissolution of the Family Federation and also enacted broader anti-cult legislation, now used to target the Jehovah’s Witnesses and other groups, Mieli said.
Dr. Samuel Radebe, the IMboni (founder and leader) of a large South African spiritual movement called The Revelation Spiritual Home, reported that new religious groups in Africa are often targeted by governments and submitted to various restrictions, including tax harassment. This induced him to accept the role of the African coordinator of a new association called African Forum for Religious and Spirituality Liberty (AFRSL), which works with FOREF (Forum for Religious Freedom – Europe) to promote FoRB in Africa.
Judy Lee, a Tai Ji Men (dizi) disciple, presented the Tai Ji Men case. She first introduced Tai Ji Men to those who might not know it as “an ancient menpai (similar to a school) of qigong, martial arts, and self-cultivation rooted in Taoist philosophy but open to dizi (similar to disciples) of all religions. In 1966, its leader, Dr. Hong Tao-Tze, established the Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy in Taiwan. As of today, there are 17 academies in Taiwan and 4 in the United States, with tens of thousands of dizi throughout the world.”
Lee then explained how the Tai Ji Men case was born. “In 1996, after the first presidential elections in Taiwan, the then Taiwanese government cracked down on religious, spiritual and cultivation movements, accused of not having supported the candidate of the ruling party. Tai Ji Men was caught in the crossfire although it had not taken any political stance. Dr. Hong was falsely accused by a prosecutor called Hou Kuan-Jen, who violated the law and abused his authority, of ‘raising goblins,’ a practice totally foreign to Tai Ji Men. To this, the more modern accusation of tax evasion was added, with fabricated arguments. The National Taxation Bureau did not investigate the matter and in 1997 just issued tax bills based on Prosecutor Hou’s criminal indictment.”
Eventually, Taiwan’s judiciary vindicated Tai Ji Men, Lee said: “In 2007, the Supreme Court found Tai Ji Men not guilty of any crime, including tax evasion, and all defendants, who had been detained unlawfully, received national monetary compensation.” However, the National Taxation Bureau maintained its tax bills, claiming that the gifts Tai Ji Men dizi (disciples) offer to their Shifu (Grand Master), Dr. Hong, when they are officially accepted as dizi and on major traditional holidays, were in fact tuition fees for a (non-existent) “cram school.”
Finally, even the National Taxation Bureau had to accept that Tai Ji Men was not a cram school, and to reduce all tax bills to zero. However, it maintained the tax bill for the year 1992, based on a technicality. “In 2020, based on the 1992 tax bill, the NTB and the Administrative Enforcement Agency confiscated our land where TJM intended to build a spiritual center,” Lee reported.
Lee stated that harassing Tai Ji Men through fabricated taxes violates their right to “the realization of an inner belief or religion, which is protected by the United Nations’ two main human rights covenants that Taiwan, although not a member of the UN, has incorporated into its domestic legislation.”
Lee concluded that a former Chief Justice “once mentioned that unjust criminal prosecution and ill-founded taxation are the two major burdens imposed on citizens by the government. Tai Ji Men has been suffered by these two types of persecutions for 28 years now. It needs help to stop what is not only a tax case but an instance of violation of freedom of religion or belief.”