The government is shutting down a spiritual group similar to the banned Falun Gong. The Information Centre of Human Rights & Democratic Movement in China said on FEB-1 "that China has closed down 100 offices of the Zhong Gong spiritual group, which claims more than 10 million practitioners in the country. Zhong Gong, like the banned Falun Gong movement (with an estimated 100 million practitioners worldwide), is based on the traditional Chinese meditation practice of qigong. Chinese officials said earlier this month that they would step up monitoring of hundreds of similar health and spiritual groups, fearing that they might gain the kind of following that Falun Gong has attracted...Chinese police began the crackdown on Zhong Gong last November after President Jiang Zemin labeled it as a cult."
	"One week ago the Information Centre confirmed that China has sent more than 50 practitioners of the Falun Gong movement to a psychiatric hospital in Beijing since December where they are being treated like psychiatric patients. The Hong Kong-based Information Centre says that at least four practitioners have died in police custody."
	"Leaders of unregistered Catholic and Protestant churches say that the government continues to use its crackdown on the Falun Gong as a pretext to bring other groups under control. The Vatican news service Fides says that according to officials of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong, the Chinese government is following through with a secret plan issued in August to absorb the underground Church into the official Patriotic Association, or to suppress it altogether."

"Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Guangya insisted on Monday that 'China now has the best human rights situation in its history.' "

Kryuchov said that other regions in Russia have not taken such action in compliance with the law because they have some 200 organizations to handle while Vorenzh has only 13.

FEB-27: Egypt: Pope walks in Moses' footsteps to sacred site on Mount Sinai: According to Sandro Contenta of the Toronto Star: 
Pope John Paul II visited the Coptic pope, Shenouda III and Muhammad Sayed Tantawi, the sheik of Al Azhar, the highest authority of the Sunni Muslim faith in Egypt. He traveled to the Sinai Desert to pray at the ancient Greek Orthodox Monastery of St. Catherine at the foot of Mount Sinai. [Author's note: Although the exact location of Mount Sinai is not known, it is revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims as the location where God gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites.] Pope John Paul II said that the road to peace and salvation continues to lie in God's universal laws: "Today, as always, they are the only future of the human family. They save man from the destructive forces of egoism, hatred and falsehood. They point out all the false gods that draw him into slavery." [Author's note: Although this statement matches the belief systems of Jews, Christians and Muslims, it discounts the validity of non-Abrahamic religions and ethical systems, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Humanism, Reform Judaism, Unitarian-Universalism, etc. In view of the widespread conflicts between different Abrahamic faiths, one can legitimately ask whether these other spiritual paths might be able to make significant contributions to the cause of peace.]

See also our list of religious tolerance news items for a description of positive aspects to the Pope's visit.