J. Gordon Melton - Aum Shinrikyo Investigation

Aum Shinrikyo Investigation

For more details on this topic, see Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway.

In May 1995, in the early stages of investigations into the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, Melton, fellow scholar James R. Lewis and religious freedom lawyer Barry Fisher flew to Japan to voice concern that police behaviour, including mass detentions without charge and the removal of practitioners' children from the group, might be infringing the civil rights of Aum Shinrikyo members. They had travelled to Japan at the invitation and expense of Aum Shinrikyo after they had contacted the group to express concern over developments, and met with officials over a period of three days. While not having been given access to the group's chemical laboratories, they held press conferences in Japan stating their belief, based on the documentation they had been given by the group, that the group did not have the ability to produce sarin and was being scapegoated. Melton revised his judgment shortly after, concluding that the group had in fact been responsible for the attack and other crimes. The scholars' defence of Aum Shinrikyo led to a crisis of confidence in religious scholarship when the group's culpability was proven.