Israeli police have discovered members of a missing American Christian doomsday sect in Jerusalem, where they are suspected of planning a mass suicide to coincide with the start of the new millennium.
About 72 members of the Colorado-based cult known as the Concerned Christians disappeared last month after their leader, Monte Kim Miller, prophesied the apocalyptic destruction of Denver by an earthquake. Although the promised calamity did not happen, many had already sold their belongings and some headed to Israel.
Mr Miller has said he will die in the streets of Jerusalem in December 1999 and be re-surrected three days later. A spokeswoman for the Israeli police said a special unit was set up several months ago to deal with messianic sects that might try to create public disturbances as the turn of the century approaches.
A Foreign Ministry official said there was concern about who might enter the Holy Land to mark the start of the new millennium and the Government was attempting to monitor visitors.
Experts and relatives of members of the cult believe that Mr Miller, 44, who claims that God speaks through him, has the power to persuade his followers to take their own lives.
An Israeli police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was not known what the cult members were doing, or whether they posed a threat to themselves or others. "It is not so clear what they want to do. Their ideas have not crystallised," the official said.
Bill Honsberger, a Denver cult expert, said the sect would probably move on now that some of its members had been found, and try to set up a new base elsewhere.
The discovery of the cult members comes amid fears that religious extremists might try to blow up the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem.
About £8 million has been approved to improve security at the site by deploying 450 police officers and installing electronic surveillance equipment.The site housed the Jewish Temple in biblical times, but is now the home of the Muslim holy shrines, al- Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.
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Source - http://www.the-times.co.uk/
