Newark Students Denounce Human Rights Crimes in Japan

New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) students will gather in NJIT's Campus Center Ballroom B from 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. on Friday to spread the word about human rights crimes in Japan. "Japan's Hidden Shame" is the focus of an ongoing series of events on abductions, illegal confinement, and forcible faith-breaking of members of the Unification Church of Japan.

"Regrettably, few in New Jersey know about the 40-year-long persecution of Unification Church members in Japan, which includes abduction, forcible confinement, torture, and in some cases rape, in an effort to break the religious convictions of members of minority religions," according to Nolan Ching, an NJIT student leader. The students are calling upon members of Congress, including Rep. Donald M. Payne, a member of the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight, to use his office to appeal to the government of Japan to enforce its own laws, which guarantee religious liberty for all citizens.

Speakers at the event will include American and Japanese citizens who survived the psychological torture of faith-breaking usually referred to as "deprogramming." A six-minute videotape will present testimonies of the deprogramming survivors who returned to the Unification Church, married and founded successful families.

This event is organized by the newly-started NJIT chapter of the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (CARP), a national student organization founded by the Unification Church; its goal is to promote spiritual and academic excellence among college students, thereby creating a generation of peace.

The NJIT chapter's inaugural event will feature three guest speakers: Mr. Luke Higuchi, president of SAFE (Survivors Against Forced Exit); Ms. Ichiko Sudo, a radio talk show host, and Mr. Dan Fefferman, executive director of the International Coalition for Religious Freedom. They will share victims' testimonies, report recent efforts to expose the problem, and explain why Japan's government has taken no action to protect the religious freedom of minorities.

All NJIT students and faculty, as well as the press, are invited.

Contributed by Doug Burton.

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