This is a cross post by Richard Bartholomew
From the Independent:
This week the Unification Church leader flew into Britain with his son as part of a three-week tour of Europe. It is only the second trip that the preacher has made to the UK since a Home Office ban on his entry was lifted in 2005.
At the church’s headquarters off Lancaster Gate in London there is a flurry of activity as congregants prepare for the new arrivals. The Reverend Moon is staying at a nearby hotel, preparing for a speech and Mrs Moon is visiting the House of Commons at the invitation of David Anderson MP and Labour peer Lord King…
According to Richard Kay in the Daily Mail,
Sun Myung Moon, the head of the Unification Church, will be in the heart of the Palace of Westminster, thanks to his sponsor, Labour MP Dave Anderson, who has booked committee room No 14 for a conference on world peace.
Anderson “has booked committee room No 14 for a conference on world peace”.
Anderson and King have both facilitated Moon-linked events in Parliament before: in January 2010 King hosted a “Genocide Awareness and Holocaust Commemoration” in a House of Lords Committee Room for Rev Moon’s Universal Peace Federation (UPF), and in 2008 a committee room was used for a “Plenary Session of the International Leadership Conference”, which complemented a Unification Church-backed Global Peace Festival in London’s Docklands. The session was opened Anderson and involved Moon’s son Hyun-Jin Moon, known as Preston Moon; attendees included Amjad Al Majid (a Jordanian MP), Ahmad Tejan Kabbah (a former president of Sierra Leone, where Moon has increasing influence), Anton Rop (a former Prime Minister of Slovenia), Ida Betty Odinga (Chair of the League of Kenya Women Voters and wife of Raila Odinga), and Marcus Braybrooke (World Congress of Faiths). The Georgian Times added the detail that “Dalila Khorava, the Minister of Healthcare of autonomous republic of Abkhazia” was also planning to attend.
Anderson and King were also involved in an event in London the year before:
Dr Hyun Jin Preston Moon, son of the Korean religious leader, Reverend Sun Myung Moon, last night addressed a packed audience at an event at Imperial College, London.
…MP Dave Anderson, himself a former trade unionist, implored people to stand up for what they believe and suggested that such a melting pot of participants would ultimately be instrumental in bringing about a more harmonious world.
…Following a welcome from Lord King of West Bromwich, the 43-year-old Dr. Moon Junior, who spoke English with an American accent, described the festival’s origins as being the result of a young country boy who many years ago had prayed for such unity whilst on a Korean mountainside.
“And that country boy was my father, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon,” he said.
Anderson is also part of an international circuit of speakers at events organised by the UPF: in 2008 he took part in a Global Peace Festival in Kenya.
In 2010, King presented ”Ambassador for Peace” award certificates, signed by Rev Moon, to a number of individuals, including the Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake; in 2008 Brake also took part in the 2008 London Global Peace Festival, although he told the Guardian that he didn’t “see eye to eye” with the church’s views and that taking part would give him ”an opportunity to challenge what Rev Moon advocates”. By accepting a certificate signed by Rev Moon two years later, one might almost be tempted to wonder whether a senior Lib Dem politician might not have consistent political principles.
Preston Moon stepped down from leadership of the UPF late in 2009, and this time Rev Moon has come to London with another son, Hyung Jin (also known as Sean Moon); Preston’s disputes with his family were noted by the Washington Post last September.
So what will happen when Rev Moon enters the Parliamentary committee room? Back in 2004, US Senators who went to see him at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington DC famously found themselves taking part in a bizarre coronation ceremony in which Moon, wearing maroon regal robes, was crowned “King of Peace”.
Probably, though, he’ll just give a speech. What could go wrong?