“Is the Falun Gong a religion or a cult?”;
NEW YORK—A civil lawsuit in U.S. federal court in Brooklyn is the latest effort to try and answer a decades-long question: Is the Falun Gong a religion or a cult?
The complaint stems from a series of alleged incidents as far back as 2008, when the Chinese Anti-Cult World Alliance (CACWA), a group whose members have been praised by Chinese state media, was incorporated in New York.
In the lawsuit filed in March 2015, eleven Falun Gong members and two individuals who say they were mistaken for Falun Gong adherents, allege that at least four people associated with the CACWA have engaged in an “ongoing campaign of violent assaults, threats, intimidation, and other abuses” to deprive them of their right to practice and promulgate Falun Gong beliefs.
The Falun Gong is a Buddhist and Taoist-tinged practice that includes qigong exercise and meditation; it was outlawed as a cult in mainland China in 1999.
Yet the alleged incidents took place thousands of miles away in Flushing, the large Chinese enclave in the New York City borough of Queens. The lawsuit has gathered the attention of first amendment scholars and human rights activists because its ramifications could extend beyond the metropolis.
The thirteen plaintiffs consist of American, Chinese and Hong Kong citizens who reside in New York, Maryland and Canada. In their complaint, they say that the four named defendants, two men and two women, all who are believed to reside or work in Queens, along with other unknown persons, engaged in behavior that included death threats and beatings which led them to justifiably fear imminent bodily harm or death.
They list more than a dozen incidents where one or more of the defendants are said to have struck them, harassed them or threatened to “strangle all of [them] to death” when they were handing out Falun Gong materials, participating in a Lunar New Year parade, or just walking down the street. In one instance, a plaintiff alleges that she was told that “the United States cannot protect you,” and that she was on a Chinese embassy blacklist and would be “disappeared.” (OK TO PUT IN QUOTES?) Another plaintiff said he was surrounded by a mob of Chinese Communist Party loyalists and CACWA members who raised their fists and yelled “Down with the evil cult” at him.
The plaintiffs seek an injunction against the defendants that would prevent them from coming within fifty feet of them and the Falun Gong spiritual center in Flushing, situated in a bustling spot in the neighborhood’s main thoroughfare. They are also asking for financial damages.
Terri Marsh, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, declined to make her clients available for interviews. She and her co-counsel, Joshua Moskovitz, did not respond to repeated requests for further comment.
Defence lawyer Tom Fini, in a twist (OK?), called the lawsuit an attempt by the Falun Gong to suppress those who disagreed with their beliefs. “My clients want the right to say that the Falun Gong has irrational beliefs, but that doesn't mean that everyone has to agree with each other,” he said in an interview. Among the “irrational beliefs” he cited were claims made by Li Hongzhi, the Falun Gong’s U.S.-based founder, that aliens had introduced computers and airplanes to human society and that he, like the celebrity magician David Copperfield, could levitate.
Fini has attempted – unsuccessfully – to subpoena Li, a reclusive figure who is believed to reside in New York state and occasionally appears at Falun Gong events WHERE?.
Fini also called the allegations of violence exaggerated, saying that they were, at most, scuffles on the street. “It’s not unlike how Trump supporters get into scuffles with young people voting for Bernie,” Fini said, referencing the Republican Presidential nominee and the runner-up for the Democratic Presidential nomination. “No one gets hurt or goes to the hospital.”
Once tolerated by Chinese authorities, the movement has been classified as a “cult” and outlawed on the mainland since 1999 by then-President Jiang Zemin. Human rights groups such as the International Coalition to End Organ Pillaging in China say China’s crackdown includes measures such as forced organ transplants. Falun Gong beliefs are still practiced and proselytized by the overseas Chinese community in places like Taiwan and America. Shen Yun, an affiliated dance group, performs at major venues like Carnegie Hall and kiosks distributing the Epoch Times, a pro-Falun Gong newspaper, are commonplace throughout Manhattan.
The New York Falun Gong adherents say that the CACWA’s actions are an extension of the Chinese government’s crackdown, which continues today. They assert that the CACWA is an offshoot of that campaign and that Michael Chu, the co-chairman of the Alliance and one of the named defendants, also leads a Chinese state body that “monitors” the behavior of overseas Chinese communities. The Chinese consulate general in New York didn’t respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
Chu, a Taiwan-born immigrant, is a prominent fixture in the Flushing community. Nicknamed the “Mayor of Flushing,” both a flattering New York Times profile and an article in China Daily, China’s English language mouthpiece, detailed how Chu created and leads a neighborhood watch group that works with the police to maintain safety in Flushing. The Epoch Times has branded Chu as a servant of Beijing and a purveyor of hate. The pro-Falun Gong publication also alleges that Chu’s neighborhood watch collaborates with the CACWA.
Fini, Chu’s lawyer, said it was ironic that “instead of being happy that everybody has freedom, the Falun Gong’s biggest problem is being called a cult.”
Fini said the case is not about religious freedom, arguing that the Falun Gong freely published a newspaper in the U.S. and are unhindered in carrying out activities such as an annual parade in midtown Manhattan. “It is ridiculous to suggest that my clients are interfering with their right to practice,” he said. “This case is about free speech rights that are part of the tradition of our nation. Welcome to America.”