About 30 scholars from China, the United States, Canada, Australia, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka and other countries took part in a forum on cult in Wuhan over the weekend, which agreed that Falun Gong is a cult that spreads rumors to defame China.

Experts at the forum revealed the evil nature of Falun Gong cult from the perspective of religion, philosophy, psychology, communication and medical science. Many of them said that Falun Gong has deceived practitioners with rumors and words quoted and misinterpreted from Buddhism and Taoism.

Michael Kropveld, Founder and Executive Director of Info-Cult/Info-secte based in Montreal, Canada, said though China and western countries differ in culture, religion, history and law, the behavior of Li Hongzhi, leader of Falun Gong and his followers are no doubt promoting a cult.

"Falun Gong misappropriated concepts from Buddhism and Taoism to manipulate the minds of the practitioners, which has led to mass mortality and disabilities of its followers as they refuse to receive medical treatment when falling ill," said Meerim Aitkulova, research fellow with National Institute for Strategic Studies in Kyrgyzstan.

Over the past decades, Falun Gong practitioners have ceaselessly accused China of live organ harvesting, claiming that China still "harvests organs" from prisoners, especially those from Falun Gong practitioners. But that has turned out to be a complete rumor, scholars at the forum said.

Campbell Fraser, a scholar at Griffith University, Australia, said the so-called live organ harvesting has been proved untrustworthy by international organ transplant professionals, but Falun Gong activists still run such campaigns.

Fraser said there's no evidence of live organ harvesting claimed by Falun Gong practitioners after talks with Chinese transplant specialists and visits to hospitals and medical institutions in Shenzhen, Kunming and other cities.

Qin Junhui, research member of Center for Studies of International Pseudo Religion Questions at Wuhan University, said Falun Gong fabricated data in organ transplantation in China, which has always been the behavior pattern of the cult and its media.

James R. Lewis, professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tromso in Norway, said although Sound of Hope Radio and New Tang Dynasty Television appeared in public in the name of ordinary media, their annual tax records showed they are in fact manipulated and sponsored by international anti-China forces.

Some scholars have even been threatened by Falun Gong practitioners. Fraser spoke of harassment by Falun Gong practitioners for debunking their lies, adding this is also the reason why many media organizations refrained from reporting news on them.

"Falun Gong has been using all sorts of methods to attack, defame and threaten the media and people that revealed their evil nature in order to cover up the truth and manipulate public opinions," said Xu Tao, professor at School of Philosophy at Wuhan University, China's Hubei Province.