Hayden’s Anti-Soka Letter Labeled Japan-Bashing : Calabasas: The assemblyman cites worries over development and the school’s religious ties. University backers call it ‘hate mail.’

Soka University administrators have accused Assemblyman Tom Hayden of Japan-bashing because of a letter in which he described the school as a “Japanese religious cult subsidized with our tax dollars” that is “ruining the Santa Monica Mountains.”

“It’s just hate mail,” said Jeff Ourvan, the school’s director of community relations. “I feel that he’s catering to people’s worst fears, which are totally unsubstantiated and ill-founded.”

Ever since the school first proposed building a 4,400-student university near Calabasas two years ago, there have been widespread reports that its Buddhist affiliate--Soka Gakkai--is a cult. One such allegation was supported by the Cult Awareness Network in Chicago.

The school’s leaders have repeatedly denied those allegations and insist that they are now completely independent from Soka Gakkai, although the two groups share the same founder.

“We don’t practice religion here, we don’t teach religion here, it’s not a school exclusively for Buddhists,” Ourvan said. “It’s no different than Notre Dame’s relation to the Catholic Church . . . or Cal Lutheran to the Lutheran Church.”

But Duane Peterson, Hayden’s chief of staff, said the Democratic assemblyman from Santa Monica only put into writing in his Jan. 30 letter what many people have said in the past. He said evidence abounds that Soka Gakkai and the school remain closely linked.

“I can’t tell you how many letters we have received from people formerly associated with the Soka Gakkai who call it a cult and are glad they got out,” Peterson said.

Hayden’s letter was sent to “several hundred” community leaders and residents in the Santa Monica Mountains, most of whom live in or near Calabasas, Peterson said.

Ourvan suggested that Hayden’s motivation in sending the letter was purely political. Hayden’s present district does not include any of the 580-acre campus, but the property falls in two of the newly drawn districts in which he has indicated some interest--the 41st Assembly and the 23rd Senate.

Paul Foote, a Cal State Fullerton accounting professor who has announced his intention to run in the 41st Assembly District, said: “It is obvious that he suddenly needs to stake out a claim for doing something in his new district . . . but attacking foreign sects was a blunder.”

Peterson countered that Hayden became involved in the fight against Soka’s expansion plans nearly a year ago, long before the state Supreme Court announced the new district boundaries Jan. 27.

Peterson said Hayden’s interest in the issue was twofold: He has long opposed development in the Santa Monica Mountains and, as chairman of the Assembly’s Higher Education Committee, he was concerned about the school itself.

The letter outlines legislation, including a bill by Hayden that passed the Assembly last week, that would preclude the school from calling itself a university because it is not accredited in this country. Previously, Hayden’s questions about the school’s tax-exempt status prompted an ongoing inquiry by the state Franchise Tax Board.