CultNEWS101 Articles: 1/28/2026

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Patrick Ryan

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Jan 28, 2026, 3:01:36 AMJan 28
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New Book, Child Trafficking, Hare Krishna, Legal, Japan, Unification Church
In America, every 2.5 hours, a child is taken by human traffickers; 50% of trafficking victims are children (The Deliver Fund). Additionally, 2.5 million Americans have joined cultic groups in the past two decades (International Cultic Studies Association). Online predators pose a critical threat to today’s children. This new book, Taken No More: Protect Your Children Against Traffickers and Cults, provides tools to fight these critical problems. It serves as a guide for parents, teachers, mental health professionals, lawyers, and law enforcement.

Cults actively recruit on college campuses, online, and in so-called self-improvement and health space, such as yoga and meditation.

Taken No More devotes a full chapter to predators’ tactics in soliciting children online. The frequency in which this is happening is alarming and, often, with devasting consequences.

Robin Boyle Laisure is an author and law professor. Taken No More is a culmination of nearly thirty years of research into the labyrinth of pernicious enterprises and the law. As a guide for family and professionals, the book advises about the dangers of human trafficking and cults. It suggests dialogue when speaking with children, teens, and young adults. It is a must-read for anyone raising, teaching, or counseling children. The advice offered could help save lives.
" In 2023, Rakesh Patel, an inmate at the Jefferson Correctional Institution in Monticello, Florida, filed several grievances with the state’s Department of Corrections. After 10 years of incarceration, Patel said he was suddenly denied a copy of the Bhagavad Gita As It Is, the English translation and commentary on the central Sanskrit Hindu Scripture by the founder of the Hare Krishna movement, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Since April 2022, all copies of the text, considered one of the most prevalent editions of the Gita, have been banned from Florida prison systems. It’s among more than 20,000 books banned by the Department of Corrections’ Literature Review Committee, based in Tallahassee.

“I am being deprive[d] of practicing my religion,” Patel, 58, wrote in his complaints. “This Hindu holy book is no different from Muslims’ holy book of Koran written in Arabic with English translations and the Christian Bible written in Hebrew with English translations. This committee is making a very serious mistake by rejecting this book.”

Patel’s appeal was denied by the FDOC representative, who gave a brief statement saying the Gita As It Is was determined by the Literature Review Committee to be “inadmissible” because it was “written in code” or in “a manner not reasonably subject to interpretation by Department staff as to meaning or intent.” Therefore, the statement said, the book was “detrimental to the safety, security, order or rehabilitative interests” of the facility, or would “create a risk of disorder.”

While the Gita is in Sanskrit, the version in question is translated into English, along with commentary. In his rebuttal, Patel, who was convicted of first-degree attempted murder and is serving a 15-year sentence, wrote, “It is not my fault if the Department’s Literature Review Committee cannot comprehend plain English.”
 
Now members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness are getting ready to file a religious discrimination lawsuit against the Jefferson Correctional Institute, with Patel, who is on track to be released in October, as a plaintiff. "
Tetsuya Yamagami was arrested on the spot in July 2022 after fatally firing at former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with a homemade gun in the western city of Nara.

"A Japanese court on Wednesday sentenced a 45-year-old man to life imprisonment for fatally shooting former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, public broadcaster NHK reported, in an incident that stunned the nation three and a half years ago.

Tetsuya Yamagami was arrested on the spot in July 2022 after fatally firing at Abe with a homemade gun while he was delivering a campaign speech in the western city of Nara. Abe, the country’s longest-serving premier, was 67."

" ... Abe‘s killing also brought to light a deep link between his party and the Unification Church, an organization many consider a cult. An in-party investigation found that more than a hundred lawmakers had dealings with the group, leading many voters to shun the LDP, which has ruled Japan for most of the post-war period.

Media have quoted Yamagami as telling the court that he held a grudge against the Unification Church after his mother’s large donation to it caused financial hardship for their family, and that he took out his anger on Abe because the former prime minister had once sent a video message to an event held by a group affiliated with the church.

Founded in South Korea in 1954, the Unification Church is famous for its mass weddings and counts Japanese followers as a key source of income.

Yamagami’s lawyers, meanwhile, argued that the family’s misfortune caused by the donation to the Unification Church should be taken into consideration and that his prison term should be limited to 20 years at most."

Additional Reading:

- The Economist: How social media aids cult recruitment and control. Link (https://www.cultnews101.com/2026/01/social-media-are-helping-cults-to.html)
- Asia Times: The ongoing impact of the Unification Church on Japanese politics. Link (https://www.cultnews101.com/2026/01/kishi-moon-tie-still-afflicts-japan-as.html)
- ABC: Jewish leaders call for revisions to hate law reforms in Australia. Link (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-21/jewish-groups-react-hate-law-reform-passes-senate/106248826)
- World Atlas: A profile of Fairfield, Iowa, and its association with Transcendental Meditation. Link (https://www.worldatlas.com/cities/7-under-the-radar-retirement-towns-in-iowa.html)


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