Anita van Duyn, a former retail entrepreneur who left Identity Science in 1994 after more than a decade in the group, knew Ms. Gabbard as a young woman, He wrote to MPs warning that Ms Gabbard was “within Mr Butler’s full influence and what she said were “wildly ambitious political goals””. Ms Van Duyn lives with his wife in California , she said she left the group because Mr Butler “only used protégés like puppets to achieve his personal gain”.
Like other critics, she could not say specifically what Mr. Butler’s political agenda was, although in 1977 the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported that he had secretly supported a group of failed candidates for congressional and state offices in Hawaii the previous year. people. He did not respond to a request for an interview.
In a statement, Ms. Gabbard’s spokesperson, Alexa Henning, described questions about Ms. Gabbard’s religious background as “Hinduphobia.” She also sought to distance Ms. Gabbard from Identity Science, claiming “she has never and has no affiliation with the organization.” “It’s bigoted to smear her into a cult,” she wrote in an email.
Ms Gabbard has spoken positively about Mr Butler’s group in the past and has taken issue with critics who call it an abusive cult. Ms. Gabbard told The New Yorker in 2017: “I never heard him say anything hateful or mean anything to anyone. He gave me and so many people this spiritual practice.”
In the same article, Mr. Butler praised her as an accomplished “student of mine.”
Ahead of scrutiny of Ms. Gabbard ahead of her confirmation hearing, Identity Sciences has hired 5W, a New York public relations firm, to conduct an email campaign criticizing the group’s press coverage of her for inciting anti- Hindu Hate Hate Hate,” the message echoed from the White House.
