United Kingdom: Promoting Falun Gong in Glasgow

On July 15th, Scottish Dafa disciples promoted the Fa and clarified the truth in Glasgow, the biggest city in Scotland. Events took place in St. George’s Square, outside local government buildings. During our activities, we found that many people already knew the facts and there were people too who had misunderstandings about Dafa, which were disentangled after hearing the truth.

Although Scottish Dafa disciples applied for permission from the local authorities to promote Falun Gong in St. George’s Square a few days ago, there was no further message. On the day, though practitioners still had not got any reply, we decided to do the exercise in the square as planned. As soon as we started doing the exercises, a policeman on duty came over and asked us if we had permission. One practitioner started to clarify the truth to the policeman and another practitioner rang the council to ask whether the permission had been granted. An official who knew our situation said, "We know you are peaceful, you have done the exercises there before, and there is no problem."

Then, we did the exercises together, sent righteous thoughts and collected signatures for the petition in the square. At five o’clock in the afternoon, after we finished our activities, we went to an Art Museum because the Chinese ambassador to the UK would open an elaborate Chinese antique exhibition there. We went to clarify the truth to both Chinese and Western people with an interest in traditional Chinese culture.

As soon as we arrived outside the Art Museum, we discovered that the normally spacious main door had been reduced with barriers to a narrow opening. Many Chinese and Western people were waiting outside. When we got permission, we hung banners onto the barriers with text in both English and Chinese, which read, “The World Needs Truthfulness—Compassion—Tolerance", "Bring Jiang To Justice", "Falun Dafa is Good", "Support Suing Jiang Zemin Globally”. All the people coming in and going out could see them.

Then we began to do the exercises while other practitioners distributed leaflets to all the people. We could hear some Chinese people saying, ” Look, Falun Gong!” There were also Chinese people who greeted us. Even the “Free Tibet” group that was protesting beside us were amazed by our peaceful demeanour; they became quiet and told the passers-by the truth about Falun Gong.

After watching our practise for a while, one worker in the Art Museum said to us, "You are so peaceful, so wonderful." He also gave practitioners some sweets to show his regards. When one of his friends heard our exercise music over the phone, this friend asked him to put the mobile phone in front of our music player, so that he could hear the music through the phone and he said the music is so beautiful.

There was a lady who came to see the exhibition, as soon as she saw us, she said, "I know, they are the qigong practise that is banned in China." She said she had read our leaflets before and all the Chinese government’s propaganda is false. Also, there were many people who stopped in front of the posters and read them carefully.

Some people who misunderstood Falun Gong before changed their opinions after they learnt the truth. One western couple used to believe what Jiang’s group propaganda said and regarded Falun Gong as a cult. When they saw how peaceful Falun Gong practitioners were, they realised they had been blind. Many Chinese and western people kept looking back on their way home at the spectacle of Dafa disciples exercising. They were so unwilling to go. We also clarified the truth to local government officials and policemen face to face. We told them what had happened in Iceland and France. The policemen expressed their reassurance; they said they would not believe in the CC P’s propaganda, those things would not happen here. The officials also said that they knew about how Falun Gong is now suffering persecution. Just in the last week, Glasgow local government passed a motion to condemn China’s human rights status before the Chinese ambassador’s visit, they also brought China’s human rights problems to the Ambassador's attention during his visit to Glasgow.

When the event finished, we thanked our host and he said unfeigned, "You are so gentle, so beautiful." Actually, on that day, hundreds of people who came to see the exhibition including ourselves were touched and inspired by the peaceful and compassionate atmosphere.