Who are the members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult?

1 Founded by Shoko Asahara in the early 1990s, Aum Shinrikyo was a doomsday cult based in Japan. 2 Aum Shinrikyo conducted a deadly nerve gas attack on a Tokyo subway in 1995. Thirteen people were killed, and thousands were injured. 3 Two hundred Aum Shinrikyo members were convicted following the attacks.

When did Aum Shinrikyo start their terror campaign?

Aum Shinrikyo began its public campaign of terror on June 27, 1994. On that Monday in Matsumoto, a city of 300,000 population 322 kilometers northwest of Tokyo, a group of cult members drove a converted refrigerator truck into a nondescript residential neighborhood.

When did Aum Shinrikyo become a non-incorporated religion?

In October 1995, the Japanese government officially stripped Aum Shinrikyo of its status as a religious group, but the group continues to operate as a non-incorporated religion. Following Asahara’s arrest and trial, the group reinvented itself under the name Aleph, and currently has about two thousand members.

Where does the name Aum Shinrikyo come from?

The name “Aum Shinrikyo” (オウム真理教, Oumu Shinrikyō), usually rendered in English as “Aum Supreme Truth”, derives from the Sanskrit syllable Aum, used to represent the universe, followed by the Japanese Shinrikyo (meaning, roughly, “Teaching of Truth”) written in kanji.

What did Aum Shinrikyo believe in end times?

Asahara claimed that only those who joined him in his new group, Aum Shinrikyo, would survive these end times. Although Aum Shinrikyo was fairly controversial, it also attracted many highly educated and financially well-off people, and soon became known as a religious group for the elite of Japanese society. Beliefs and Activities

How did Aum Shinrikyo get a reputation as a bully?

He soon developed a reputation at school for being a bully, and is said to have physically attacked other students and extorted money from his peers. After failing to be accepted into a university, Asahara began studying traditional Eastern herbal medicine in 1978. Within a few years, he was charged with practicing pharmacy without a license.

When did Aum Shinrikyo attack the Tokyo subway?

Aum Shinrikyo conducted a deadly nerve gas attack on a Tokyo subway in 1995. Thirteen people were killed, and thousands were injured. Two hundred Aum Shinrikyo members were convicted following the attacks. Founder Shoko Asahara received the death penalty and was executed in 2018.