Shoko Asahara

One more cult that has gained international notoriety for leading the mass murder of many is called Aum Shinrikyo. Chizuo Matsumoto who is commonly known as Shoko Asahara was the one who established the cult. Born into a poor family of seven children and partially blind, he failed to gain entry into a university. Falling back to plan B he pursued a career in herbal medicine but was fined for not having a proper license. 1981 was about the time he seriously peered into Taoism and Chinese Astrology but it was not until 1987 that the religion of truth was founded ("Shoko Asahara Biography"). Currently known as Aleph this Japanese new religious movement ("Reader") continues to grow, in fact, it is averaging two-hundred new members per year and…

Aum Shinrikyo, also known as Aum and currently as Aleph, is a cult from Japan that combines tenets from Buddhism, Hinduism, and has an obsession with the apocalypse. The cult’s founder Shoko Asahara, claims that he is the first "enlightened one" since Buddha. Despite claiming to be enlightened, he incorrectly claimed the end of the world would happen in 1996 or between 1999 and 2003 (Fletcher 2012, para.2). Asahara claimed that the United States could be lured into a war with Japan and the…

An act of domestic terror in 1995, and several smaller scale terroristic acts committed in the early 90s, is the kind of violence used by this cult to change and build a new reputation for themselves. After trying to gain political legitimacy, and failing, cult leader Shoko Asahara turned to building up his credibility and reputation by using violence. Reputation is a difficult thing to build, which explains why they chose to take the extreme route of creating it. The reputation of Aum Shinrikyo…

This relationship blinded the members of Aum from reality and allowed Asahara to manipulate them however he pleased. This is quite similar to an event in the movie Ghost in the Shell. In the film, several characters have their memories rewritten by a super-hacker known as the Puppet Master. This rewrite allowed the Puppet Master to manipulate these people through fabricated memories and thoughts. Similar to the Puppet Master Asahara is rewriting what the Aum members perceived. This means that…

spiritual meaning, or they may just want to have a sense of belonging. Surprisingly, almost all members die while in a cult. It may be just of natural aging, being killed by another member, or even suicide. (Marshall) Cults are mainly run by a member who is more experienced, and has the ability to control its members without much effort. Cult leaders are quite fearsome, as he/she may plan risky attacks that may hurt may people. The leader of a cult is responsible for all of the members, they…

The cult’s belief system is based around a mixture of Buddhism, Hinduism, and an apocalyptic approach. Originally starting out as a peaceful cult, it began to take a turn for the worst in 1987 (Danzig, 2011, p. 8). Shoko Asahara preached life after the apocalypse should people follow Aum Shinrikyo. Asahara predicted the end of the world would occur sometime between 1996 and 2003. He preached to his followers that the United States would start World War III which in turn would lead to the end…

Aum Shinrikyo was based on its leader, Shoko Asahara, syncretic belief system, and much like ISIS, the group sought the end of times and used religious text to justify their use of violence. Aum Shinrikyo actively recruited physicists, chemists, biologists and engineers much like ISIS is doing today. Aum Shinrikyo experimented with and produced chemical agents like: sarin, VX, phosgene, and sodium cyanide. As well as biological weapons: anthrax, botulism and Q fever. Aum Shinrikyo was not on…

basic beliefs and goals of the terroristic organizations, their capabilities to attack, and their vulnerabilities (Parachini, 2003, p. 38). Knowing who the threat is, why they are a threat, and what their plans are will allow the government to eliminate or mitigate the damage they can cause. The Aum Shinrikyo (Aum), a religious cult that, according to Dr. Marie Chevrier (1996), believed in a day of reckoning and that when the world came to an end, only the Aum members would be saved. The Aum was…

2014) The Al Fateh’s website uses such animations to promote violence against Israel and the glory of martyrdom (Ressler, 2006). Perhaps, the most effective way in which terrorists groups use the Internet to attract new members is through the spread of propaganda. For instance, the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's an al-Qaeda cell in Iraq has predominantly proven its proficient in using website to attract attention by posting tapes of roadside bombings, and the kidnapping and decapitation of foreign…