Word: secte
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...Carolyn Jessop, a former member of Jeffs' sect, points out that there are two high-powered, charismatic men who could possibly move back to Colorado City and take Jeffs' place: one is her ex-husband, Merrell Jessop, who oversees the sect's compound in Texas; the other is Wendell Neilson, who likely oversees another compound. But she considers this unlikely. "I don't think Warren would give away any of his power - he's too controlling and hungry for it and these men would be threats to his leadership. Plus they would never go against Jeffs' wishes." Jessop predicts that...
...unlawful flight to avoid prosecution charges of forcing underage marriages, he conducted even more underage unions, exiled men from their homes and families who were considered "unworthy," and ordered followers not to pay their taxes. Some fear that his arrest could now create a power vacuum within his sect and attract other Jeffs-minded leaders interested in doing it their own way. There is also the possibility of an exiled member returning to establish new leadership...
...telling lies or promoting one's interests, but rather a moral pass to tell one very specific lie (?I am not a Shi'ite') expressly to avoid being killed. From this ancient practice that is today irrelevant (in Iran at least, where no one is persecuted for their sect), modern Iran observers sometimes draw the conclusion that Iranians have inherited a disposition for lying. As with invoking taarof to explain Iranian behavior, this line of thinking focuses on the process of communications instead of their content. Besides, does anyone truly believe Sunni politicians are less adept at dishonesty...
...evidenced by the assault on the Hangzhou church. The mandarins in Beijing have always reserved special venom for groups they label xie jiao, or evil cults. The most famous is the brutally suppressed Falun Gong movement, but the authorities may be tempted to extend that label to the Christian sects that are growing the fastest--those practicing fervid forms of worship that stress miracles and personal inspiration through prayer. A number of cultlike, pseudo-Christian offshoots have sprung up in the Chinese countryside in recent years, apparently inspired by this ecstatic form of worship. Often spawned by the personal ambition...
While al-Maliki at least tries to present himself as a unifying figure, railing against Sunni insurgents and Shi'ite militias, many of his partners in the government are blatantly sectarian. Political leaders express outrage over the atrocities committed against their own sect but won't acknowledge that the other side, too, is bleeding. They often dismiss those wounds as self-inflicted. After the bombing of the Samarra shrine, many Sunni leaders told me the blast was the work of Shi'ite agents provocateurs working in concert with Iranian intelligence operatives. Likewise, Mahdi Army commanders routinely accuse Sunni insurgents...