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Freeheartandmind
Here in Chicago you never read much about SGI endorsing candidates or anything like that. I do not recall NSA being active politically active back in the seventies. That's why I thought perhaps politics was not part of the plan for the usa. On a smaller scale, it appears that it is. Scary for sure.
SGI-USA SAYS that it is a nonprofit religious organization -- this is why it doesn't pay taxes on its wealth. However, nonprofit religious orgs are supposed to stay out of politics. SGI cannot be
openly political in the United States. They cannot endorse candidates. It doesn't mean that they are not political, however. They have donated money to candidates in exchange for favors -- and what little we know is probably just the tip of a huge iceberg. Pages 58 and 188 of this thread:
From the Cult Awareness and Information Centre website www.culthelpinfo.org; Political bribery and violations of nonprofit organization regulations:
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Everything Depends on Money"
Along with the Ikeda house, SGI-USA's political contributions have also become problematic in terms of tax laws.
]A number of local mass media offices report that the SGI-USA sent large political contributions to the mayor of Los Angeles. As stated in the Los Angeles Times (paraphrased), despite the fact that as a tax exempt religious organization they are prohibited from making political contributions, Nichiren Shoshu of America (NSA)...in 1985 and 1986 twice gave Mr. Bradley (Editor's note: The former L.A. mayor from 1973-93) a total of $16,700 for his election fund. This is made clear by any number of articles. (11/17/91 Los Angeles Times)
Former SGI-USA Vice Headquarters Chief Thomas McCord (50), who left the organization in 1992, says, "Political contributions have become a problem within NSA as well. In 1986, Mayor Tom Bradley attended the opening ceremony for the World Peace Ikeda Auditorium and sat shoulder to shoulder with Ikeda. I had doubts about it, thinking, 'Mayor Bradley has no faith. Why is he here?' Later a member discovered a copy of a personal check which NSA had hurriedly sent to the mayor. This became a problem.
As may be expected, they had many political problems, such as trouble over buying the land for the site of the Los Angeles branch of Soka University. The aim of the political contributions was to receive accommodations over these problems." Mr. Steve Gore has very interesting testimony about political contributions. "It was the end of 1971, Christmas night, I think. Williams and I visited the municipal mansion of Mayor Sam Yoty with a political contribution. The purpose was to request that Ikeda receive the title of Honorary Citizen and to request approval for a planned parade down Wilshire Boulevard, a principal city street, when NSA held its nation-wide general meeting in April the following year. I waited outside the room, but when Williams came out, he laughed, saying, 'Steve, it's OK. Everything depends on money.' The impression I received from that remains with me."
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This is from the International Cultic Studies Association website, www.icsahome.com, 1991
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Soka Gakkai [the Japan-based politico-religious movement operating in the U.S. as Nichiren Shoshu] is suspected of benefiting from the connections of former Interior Department official Lou Gallegos by the inclusion in a House bill of language prohibiting use of federal funds to purchase the Soka group's vast California acreage.Local conservationist groups and the National Park Service want the government to buy the land and keep it undeveloped. Gallegos, formerly right-hand-man to the Secretary of the Interior, and now a consultant to Soka, says his only role in the matter is in "developing strategies" for his client.
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Also, some allegations about SGI's political activities in France:----------------beginning of quote-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The acronym VSD, (pronounced vah-ess-day), which stands for Vendredi-Saraedi-Dimanche (Friday, Saturday, Sunday), is a racy scandal magazine (with an unusually large volume of stories on Japan) published by a Paris-based media group.
In August. it was revealed that the VSD general director, Jean-Pierre Canat, is a high-level official of Soka Gakkai International France, and that the media group's companies have been used by the sect to penetrate French political circles. ;The charges, published in the weekly L'Evenement du Jeudi (EDJ), go much further: They allege that Canat may be linked to a break-in and eavesdropping at the EDJ offices, and that France's counterintelligence service suspects Soka Gakkai of having been engaged in espionage.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2012 11:07PM by tsukimoto.