The Senate has confirmed former Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Trump’s defense secretary by just one vote. Hegseth has “very clear” ties to extreme Christian nationalism, as well as a history of alleged sexual assault and abuse. Logan Davis, a reporter in Denver, Colorado, who grew up in the same classical Christian educational movement that Hegseth is raising his family in, explains the problematic ideology that shapes it. Hegseth has endorsed leaders in the community and their beliefs that the church possesses supremacy over worldly affairs, antebellum slavery was a “beneficent American institution” and the U.S.'s global war on terror is a modern-day iteration of the medieval Crusades. Davis says Hegseth's lack of qualifications for his new role means he will likely be “leaning on these controversial faith leaders in his life more than someone with adequate experience” would be — bringing this extremist Christian nationalism into the mainstream.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Fiji’s government has taken the local leader of an influential South Korean doomsday sect into immigration custody after he and several other members of the Grace Road Church were declared “prohibited migrants” based on charges filed in 2018.

Fiji had announced last Thursday that it was taking steps to deport Daniel Kim and the other sect members who had been detained.

The passports of the sect members had been annulled by the Korean government in 2021, and Interpol “red notices” were issued against them.

• READ MORE: Fijian doomsday sect gets rich in Fiji with government help
• Fiji immigration officials detain Grace Road cult leader Daniel Kim
• Interpol ‘red notices’ against 7 Grace Road cult figures, but court orders stay
• Other Grace Road cult reports

Fiji Home Affairs Minister Pio Tikoduadua revealed that all of this had been ignored by the previous repressive Fiji government led by former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama, according to Fijivillage News and other local media.

Tikoduadua said two sect members had already been deported while the deportations of another two were temporarily halted by a court order.

One more member was still at large.

OCCRP investigated Grace Road and its close ties to the Bainimarama regime last year. Kim and others had managed to evade a 2018 INTERPOL red notice until the new government acted. https://t.co/i4d0XtVLYS

— Dan McGarry (@dailypostdan) September 7, 2023

A joint investigation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Organising Project (OCCRP) and KICJ-Newstapa last year exposed how the secretive Grace Road became an economic powerhouse in Fiji during the 16-year rule of Bainimarama, who lost power in elections last December.

Reporters discovered that the church was able to thrive in Fiji despite Kim and other key members being wanted on international warrants.

The investigation also uncovered how the church expanded its empire, which included a farm, restaurants, petrol stations, and supermarkets, all while receiving millions in state-backed loans.

Grace Road’s spiritual leader, Kim’s mother Ok-joo Shin, was arrested at Seoul’s international airport in 2018 and imprisoned for offences, including assault, child abuse, and imprisoning church members.

Around the same time, South Korean police attempted to bring Kim and other church members back on similar charges in Fiji but were forced to return empty-handed after a court blocked their removal.

Republished with permission from the Organised Crime and Corruption Organising Project (OCCRP).

The press statement was clear enough — that the Interpol Red Notice described these individuals as “Fugitive wanted for Prosecution”. pic.twitter.com/EjqJcyVVwv

— Pio Tikoduadua (@piotikoduaduafj) September 8, 2023

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

Thu, 74, founder of the An Dan Dai Dao religious group, was serving a life sentence in Gia Trung Detention Center in the southern province of Gia Lai.

Thu complained Friday of feeling ill to fellow prisoner of conscience, Luu Van Vinh, who told his wife, Nguyen Thi Thap.

Vinh escorted Thu back to his cell and asked prison health workers to check on the man’s condition, but they did not, Thap told Radio Free Asia.

“My husband requested that the nurses pay extra attention to him, but they seemed not to care,” she said, adding that Thu’s condition became critical later that day, and his fellow inmates asked that he be sent to a hospital for emergency care. 

“But it was too late. He passed away at 9:30 a.m.” on Sunday, Thap said.

It was unclear exactly what Thu died from, but in 2019 Thu’s family told RFA that they were concerned about his health because of his history of diabetes, arthritis and cardiovascular problems. His wife, Vo Thi Thanh Thuy, said the family sent written requests to prison officials allowing Thu to go to a hospital for checkups and treatment, but he only received approval to do so once. 

RFA could not reach prison officials at Gia Trung Detention Center to verify information about Thu's death.

Bui Ngoc Dien, Thu’s daughter-in-law, confirmed that Thu had died and that the family was preparing for his funeral.

Established in 1969, An Dan Dai Dao operated legally under the Republic of Vietnam, but was prohibited and its members persecuted after the communist government takeover in 1975. 

Its followers wanted to create a new utopia in which science, nature and humankind would be harmoniously balanced, and organized conferences and produced leaflets to disseminate their beliefs, according to The 88 Project, which advocates for free speech and civil liberties in Vietnam. 

At its height, the Buddhist sect had a network of 14 temples, hundreds of monks, and thousands of followers until the government expropriated its properties and forced its followers into hiding. 

Under Thu, also known as Tran Cong, An Dan Dai Dao built the Da Bia Ecotourism Area in Phu Yen province in the south central region.

In February 2012, police raided the ecotourism site and arrested Thu and two dozen others on charges of “conducting activities to overthrow the government” and “illegal possession, use and sale of explosives.” 

Thu was sentenced to life in prison in 2013, while 21 others each received sentences ranging from 10 to 17 years. 

Thu was the second member of the Buddhist sect to die in prison. Doan Dinh Nam died at the age of 68 at Xuyen Moc Detention Center in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, where he was serving a 16-year sentence. 

Vietnam’s one-party communist government restricts independent religious groups in terms of their right to practice religion freely by requiring them to register to do so. 

Even though many religious organizations have a long history in the country, the government makes it difficult for them to practice their religion, and local police often monitor their followers and events.

Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

On Aug. 2, public security officers and police armed with guns and shock batons raided separate locations of the Duong Van Minh religious group in the Bao Lam district of Cao Bang province, sources told RFA.

“The local authorities came at 3:00 a.m. when people were still sleeping,” said one witness to the raids, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “They gathered at the houses that keep funeral and ritual objects and demolished them.”

“We were given no notice that the raids would take place,” he said. By early morning, all local establishments of the group had been destroyed, he added.

Authorities then ordered followers of the Duong Van Minh religion to take down altars kept in their homes for family use and to surrender any items used for worship, saying police would use force to confiscate any objects not handed over, local sources said.

“Almost all families were determined to protect their houses and altars and did not let authorities’ representatives inside,” one follower said, also declining to be named because of safety concerns.

“Some asked the officials whether they had any documents allowing them to come in or orders telling them to demolish the houses. The police responded that they had confidential documents and orders but were not allowed to let local people see them,” he said.

Police then broke down the doors of the families’ homes, destroyed altars and hung pictures of former Vietnamese president Ho Chi Minh in their place. Vietnamese flags were also placed at the houses’ front doors, sources said.

Calls seeking comment from the People’s Committees of Cao Bang province and Bao Lam district rang unanswered this week.

The Duong Van Minh sect was founded in 1989 with the stated goal of promoting the elimination of outdated, expensive and unhygienic funeral customs. There are are at least 8,000 ethnic Hmong practitioners of the religion in four provinces in Vietnam’s northern mountains.

The religion is not officially registered, and government authorities say the sect is conspiring to establish an independent Hmong state and break away from Vietnam, a charge the group denies.

Police have been working for the past year to eliminate the sect, according to state media reports, and an Aug. 9 article published on the website of the Cao Bang Broadcasting Station said that Bao Lam district authorities were now fully mobilized to suppress the religion.

Largest campaign to date

Speaking to RFA, Vu Quoc Dung—executive director of VETO!, which monitors religious freedom in Vietnam—called the August raids the largest campaign carried out against the Duong Van Minh religion to date.

“It was a systematic campaign, as it mobilized all agencies and associated unions as participants,” he said.

“And the government this time applied the same measures in different places, such as forcing locals to sign a commitment to leave the religion, removing altars, banning worship gatherings on Sundays and burning or demolishing the Duong Van Minh religion’s funeral houses.”

Dung said the campaign to eliminate the Duong Van Minh religion is being directed by leaders at all levels of the Communist Party of Vietnam, and the crackdown has now been conducted across four northern provinces, affecting around 10,000 followers.

Followers of the religion say they are determined to protect their beliefs, however.

“There was widespread discontent among followers after authorities broke into their houses without showing any legal documents or orders, and many are saying that local authorities have broken the law by doing this,” one Duong Van Minh follower told RFA. “Many now plan to reinstall their altars and file complaints against those acts.”

Vietnam’s government strictly controls religious practice in the one-party communist country, requiring practitioners to join state-approved temples and churches and suppressing independent groups.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in a report released April 25 recommended that the U.S. government place Vietnam on a list of countries of particular concern because of Vietnamese authorities’ persistent violations of religious freedom.

Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Written in English by Richard Finney.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

On Tuesday the Cong an Nhan dan, which is the mouthpiece of the Ministry of Public Security, published an article about “Project 78”. It said its goal is to "fight, prevent, and proceed to eliminate the illegal Duong Van Minh organization," in Bac Kan province.

There are roughly 8,000 ethnic Hmong practitioners of the Duong Van Minh religion in four provinces in the northern mountains.

The religion is not officially registered and the police article said the government believes the sect is conspiring to "establish an independent Hmong state" and break away from Vietnam.

"The illegal sect Duong Van Minh, which has existed for more than 33 years, is an organization hiding in the shadow of beliefs and religions, propagandizing, gathering mass forces, enticing the Hmong ethnic people, plotting to establish an ‘independent Hmong state,’ seeking the support of hostile forces, and forming political opposition,” the article said.

Followers of the sect have repeatedly denied claims they want independence. Duong Van Minh was founded in 1989 with the stated goal of promoting the elimination of outdated, expensive and unhygienic funeral customs.

Hmong funeral services can last as long as a week before the body is buried. All family members are expected to attend the ceremonies, sacrifice animals and prepare feasts for the guests.

Last December hundreds of police raided the funeral of founder Duong Van Minh, in Tuyen Quang province, citing Coronavirus concerns, despite the official cause of his death being lymphoma.

Police arrested around 35 people, smashed windows in the family home and threatened the family with electric batons.

Nine more people were arrested when they went to the police to protest and another four were later charged with assaulting police officers.

On May 18 this year, a court in Tuyen Quang province convicted 12 followers of "resistance against on-duty state officials,” and sentenced them to between two and four years in prison.

Over the years Vietnamese authorities have imprisoned many sect members for “abusing freedom and democratic rights” and have destroyed dozens of religious structures used as funeral homes.

The abolition of the Duong Van Minh religion was turned into political goal in provinces where members of the sect live. In Bac Kan, the provincial government has set a “road map to eliminate” the sect by next year.

Another northern province, Cao Bang, has already included the goal of "preventing and eliminating" the sect in its resolution on socioeconomic development for 2020-2025.

A human rights lawyer, who did not want to be named for safety reasons, said the government’s plan to abolish the Duong Van Minh sect “is a serious violation of the people's right to freedom of belief and religion. It shows that this State does not respect its Constitution and the laws that it promulgates."

“Article 24 of Vietnam's constitution stipulates that everyone has the right to freedom of belief and religion, to follow or not to follow a religion. The State respects and protects the right to freedom of belief and religion,” the lawyer said.

He added that Project 78 proved that the State had decided to destroy the lives of Duong Van Minh followers.

“If it is a state that knows how to take care and think for the people the government must be responsible for helping and guiding people,” he said. “They set up such a project obviously to erase [the religion], not to acknowledge the Duong Van Minh sect."

The Vietnamese government has always insisted that it does not suppress religion, and calls Duong Van Minh's sect an "illegal organization".

However, international organizations and foreign governments, including the U.S., have refused to accept the claim and regularly accuse the Vietnamese government of violating the right to religious freedom.

According to the Report on Religious Freedom 2022, released by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on April 25, the situation of religious freedom in Vietnam is still assessed as negative due to government’s religious persecution.

The organization suggested that the US Government place Vietnam on the list of countries of special concern because of its systematic, persistent and serious violations of religious freedom.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.