New Delhi

On Thursday, thousands of members of the Unification Church rallied in Seoul to protest what they claim is biased and unfair coverage of their organisation in the Japanese media following the murder of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

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Tetsuya Yamagami, the assassin who shot Abe on July 8, had a vendetta against the church and blamed Abe for supporting it in his social media posts and news articles. He said the religion had forced his mother into bankruptcy.

"Stop biased reporting and religious persecution!" demonstrators in the South Korean capital chanted in Korean and Japanese, holding placards reading "Respect religious freedom!" and "Stop hate speech" toward the church.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reshuffled his cabinet last week and said the church had no influence over the party because of long-standing ties between the vehemently anti-communist church, which detractors refer to as a cult, and Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

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Abe

Former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe was assassinated on 8 July, 2022.

The organisation, which was started in South Korea in the 1950s by self-declared messiah Sun Myung Moon and is well-known for its mass weddings, has come under fire for its  fundraising practises and other problems. Such ideas are rejected by the church, which asserts that it is a valid religious movement.

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According to a church spokeswoman, there were roughly 4,000 protesters at the central Seoul gathering, who demanded respect for religious freedom and offered a prayer in memory of Abe. The crowd size could not be independently verified.

abe

The suspect, 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami was arrested and charged for murder after Abe was pronounced dead. 

Participants claimed that while the police investigation into the shooting was still ongoing, the Japanese press demonised the Unification Church, linking it to Abe's murder and subjecting members to social persecution.

"The media is witch-hunting the family federation with groundless, sensational and biased reports day and night," said Taeko Yamada, a Japanese member who married a South Korean at a mass wedding, referring to the church's full name, the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

Abe attended a gathering organised by an organisation connected to the church in September and spoke there while still a prominent LDP official. The church's website reports that he gave a speech honouring the affiliate's efforts to promote peace on the Korean peninsula.

(With inputs from agencies)