The crush occurred as thousands of people tried to enter the church to hear a service given by Edir Macedo, the founder and leader of the IURD, who was once jailed in Brazil on charges of charlatanism. The Maputo building is the largest IURD church in Africa, and can hold over 3,000 people. But it is estimated that around 10,000 turned up to the opening ceremony. Without adequate crowd control measures, people were crushed and two of them died.
The IURD mixes modern technology with medieval superstition so that viewers can watch Brazilian pastors performing fake miracles and casting out demons, all on their television sets. Largely because it demands ten per cent of its followers incomes, the IURD has become enormously wealthy. It has its own broadcasting empire, notably TV Record (formerly TV Miramar), and buys space on two other Mozambican TV stations, STV and TIM.
Independent papers, such as the daily O Pais and the weekly A Verdade, which know full well that the IURD bishops are nothing but wealthy charlatans, carry regular full page advertisements announcing miracle cures (never corroborated with any medical evidence, of course). Even a paper traditionally hostile to the IURD, the weekly Savana, finally succumbed to the IURDs money, and published an advert announcing the opening of the mega-church.
Throughout its history, the IURD has been accused of fraud, money-laundering, tax evasion, and extorting money from the poor and the gullible. Had any secular organisation acted as the IURD acts, it would have been forced to close its doors long ago. But when crimes are painted with a veneer of religion, governments, courts and prosecutors are reluctant to act.
Mozambiques foremost investigative journalist, the late Carlos Cardoso, had no doubt as to what the IURD really was its emphasis on making money meant that it wasnt a church at all, but a business, and as such the Mozambican state should tax it. Unfortunately, the tax authorities have yet to take up Cardosos suggestion.
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