Scientology Injunction Denied Against "Anonymous"

Anonymous writes "A circuit court judge has denied the Church of Scientology's second request for an injunction against protests by the internet group "Anonymous." The Church sought to prevent Anonymous from protesting on the birthday of the Church's leader, the late Ron L. Hubbard. The petition filed by the Church listed twenty-six individuals allegedly affiliated with Anonymous, but "accidentally" included others who merely work near the location of the first protests held in February and did not participate in them, such as a Starbucks employee. Furthermore, the Church failed to show that any of those listed actually committed any wrongdoing."

Grab Your Masks!

[MostAwesomeDude]

Get out there, show how fed up you are with these people. It's not hard to protest; just show up, wear a mask, and stand on the sidewalk.

In other news:

[Anonymous Coward]

In Adelaide they submitted a march of their own to the council [anonsa.org], nullifying our permit. It went ahead anyway, with well over two hundred attending: News story [news.com.au], Gallery [news.com.au].

We're never going to give them up, never going to let them down.

In Germany, scientology is not a church

[Anonymous Coward]

In Germany, scientology is not called a church, but a company. I think the greed parameter built into scientology makes it a company. /AC

Re:Grab Your Masks!

[KodaK]

Yes. Masks are illegal. Halloween is now outlawed.

(To be fair, yes, some locations have laws against protesting in masks, or in any way that would obscure the face. However this varies greatly by location and there's certainly no blanket "masks are illegal" law like you're suggesting.)

Re:Lets be fair to the Hubberdites

[Kierthos]

You are aware of Operation Freakout [wikipedia.org], are you not? Wherein, among other criminal activities, Scientologists basically sent bomb threats to themselves with circumstantial evidence incriminating an author, Paulette Cooper, who wrote a book which was critical of the Church of Scientology?

I'm not saying that any or all of the death threats that the Scientologists are receiving are bogus, but there is already an established history of them attempting to manipulate the courts against people critical of them.

Party Hard: It started in Sydney and Perth

[Anonymous Coward]

Sydney [flickr.com] and Perth [flickr.com] protests are up.

Hey, Europe! Just woke up? Not doing anything today? Check out what those Brits in London did on February 10th. Place your bets on whether you can top that.

Shouting out to NYC, where the Scilons sent out "volunteer" "ministers" to "body route" some "fresh meat" as the Twin Towers still smoldered? Canuckistans in the depths of frozen Ottawa and Toronto? Chicago? Tampa? How about those citizens of Occupied Clearwater who still remember when their city was still known as a tourist destination and not as a strategic base for the Scilon Empire?

YOU. You out there, reading this in Phoenix? Vegas? San Francisco? Portland? Vancouver? You think you can beat the turnout from those East Coasters?

As Operation Party Hard works its way around the planet, you know what to do.

CAPTCHA: PERSIST

Um...

[Perseid]

I'm not normally a summary-nazi, but it's L. Ron Hubbard. Not Ron L. Hubbard.

Re:Germany got it right...

[rice_burners_suck]

Show me the secret books of the Bible or the Qu'ran that only the followers who have ponied up tens of thousands of dollars get to see. You can't. There aren't any such books.

As a matter of fact, according to Jewish Halacha Law, it is ILLEGAL to charge money for the teaching of the Torah. The knowledge this work contains belongs to the whole world.

Re:Germany got it right...

[AuMatar]

IMAO, Scientology is at best, a business designed to empty the wallets of the gullible. At worst, it is a scam and an extortion campaign.

That pretty much describes all religions. Read up on religious history, money and power almost always flows to the church.

Re:How'd the get the starbucks employee?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, that's actually one of the things they do -they video tape everything and then comb through the footage looking for anything (identifying clothes, distinctive features, license plate numbers) they can use to identify their Suppressive Persons (ie their critics).

Posting anonymously to prevent an IRL karma hit. :-/

Re:Grab Your Masks!

[Anonymous Coward]

explain the need for the mask

They are so the cult doesn't make you a target.

Re:They are forgetting.

[Loligo]

>They're about one step above the average 4-channer.

Uhh... "Anonymous" IS a bunch of 4chan'ers. Or at least started there.

Re:Whats wrong with america?

[muuh-gnu]

> Why did the Scientology cult get the status of a church there?

They didn't. Being a church isnt a kind of a legal status, so everybody can call himself a church. Even text editor [dina.kvl.dk] users. To make it a legal title you first would have to define what a church is, and scientology then easily would change their business practices and methods to meet this new definition. In the end, you'd gain nothing.

Re:Grab Your Masks!

[sqrt(2)]

The cult of Scientology has a long and documented history of harassing critics. It's just prudent for your own safety and the safety of your family to keep your identity hidden. They also film the protest activities from their buildings and disguised surveillance vehicles so if you're not wearing a mask the Co$ will start a file on you, they have an entire agency that does this.

Re:Germany got it right...

[Antique Geekmeister]

There are also plenty of fascinating documents in the Vatican Library, including the Dead Sea Scrools, which are not available for public review. The "Kabbalah" also involves keeping interesting secrets from the uninitiated.

Sydney Protest Footage

[essence]

Sydney protest footage here. [youtube.com]

Re:Grab Your Masks!

[Grimbleton]

Yes, a Guy Fawkes mask.

Re:Whats wrong with america?

[Kierthos]

The Church of Scientology has tax-exempt status in the United States (which is interesting, as members of the CoS infiltrated the IRS, among other government agencies), which they use as "proof" that the U.S. government considers them a religion.

They operate a slave labor camp. Reason enough.

[Anonymous Coward]

The scienos operate their own prison and slave labor camp system [google.com], where their elite Sea Org members who step out of line get sent to be rehabilitated by labor at the RPF camps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rehabilitation_Project_Force [wikipedia.org] . And though not all of their labor "rehab" projects keep them prisoner by lock and key, they often coerce their prisoners into staying by blackmail, using the massive files of confessions they accumulate via auditing sessions, and "freeloader's debt," where they get retroactively charged for all the auditing they received for free, which often amounts to tens of thousands of dollars worth.

In the 70's, they infiltrated the US government using over 5,000 of their agents: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_snow_white [wikipedia.org].
Although this effort was uncovered, leading to their secret take-over by elements within the IRS [pair.com] who operate the whole racket for profit behind the scenes (which many people don't know about) their infiltration of France was successful [google.com] to this day.

Earthlink is a front company for the Church of Scientology [skeptictank.org]. So is Helio, the cell phone company. Google "Scientology front companies" for a shocking list; they are constantly trying to spy on and infiltrate and subvert whatever they can with no regards for ethics but the advancement of their own power.

Their cameramen patroled public transit on 2/10

[Anonymous Coward]

Make sure you be careful: they have cameramen staked out at public transit locations to try to photograph people with their masks off; they'll try to match you by your clothing, identify you, and harass you to no end. Some guys in London found out the hard way. Their practice is always to stay under the threshold of proof. If they can throw a brick through your window and if you can't prove they did it, they'll do that.

They're planning on disrupting the protests [indymedia.org.au] with staged violence by anons [enturbulation.org]. Make sure you catch it all on camera if you attend.

Re:Grab Your Masks!

[Curtman]

Watch the code of conduct [youtube.com] video before going to protest please.
Scarves are better than masks.

Re:IRL raids

[Anonymous Coward]

Look. Some of us have been battling Scientology online since 1994. They are not the fucking rotary club. They are the largest cult in the world and they kill people. They extort their members for all the money they can get so as to finance lawsuits against anyone who points out that they are the largest cult in the world and that they kill people.

They were also the first ones to use the courts to try and get a web page taken down. Depending on who you ask, that may or may not be worse than the fact that they are the largest cult in the world and they kill people.

Re:Grab Your Masks!

[moxley]

Parent should not have been modded as flamebait - it makes a good (if slightly redeundant) point and does not seem to be inviting scorn.

A FAQ on Scientology AKA Church of Scientology

[blind biker]

You can find a very detailed explanation here. [xenu.net] Basically, questions like what is scientology, what is the e-meter, and last minute news about scientology, can be found there.

Re:Grab Your Masks!

[Kierthos]

As part of their documented history of harassing critics, may I refer you to Operation Freakout [wikipedia.org]?

Re:Waitaminute:

[Kierthos]

Also, it's possible that the judge was aware of Operation Freakout [wikipedia.org], where, among other things, the CoS sent bomb threats to themselves, but made it appear as though an author, Paulette Cooper, was responsible for them. You see, she wrote a book that was critical of the Church of Scientology... so that made it "fair game" to ruin her life.

Re:IRL raids

[Broken scope]

The anon raids are against the church as an organization, not individual members themselves. Anon offers no opinion on the actual belife,, they just don't like business side of the church.

Re:Whats wrong with america?

[STrinity]

They didn't. Being a church isnt a kind of a legal status,

Yes, it is. Government recognized churches get tax exemptions. And Scientology is a government recognized church.

Re:IRL raids

[A nonymous Coward]

Japan's history is replete with examples of Buddhist sects battling each other, including Zen Buddhism.

There's a pilgrimage around Shikoku visiting 88 numbered temples plus a dozen or two unnumbered temples (I did parts of it by bicycle a few years back). There are two temples claiming to be #30, with the government choosing one then the other depending on the political mood. Other temples have waged war with each other over the years (the pilgrimage started 1200 years ago, I think)

Re:IRL raids

[halovaa]

Did you know for example that it now appears that early Christians, far from being blamed for Rome burning, weren't even considered relevant, and many 'confessed' and were punished simply in order to obtain their martyrdom?

Can you please post a source on this assertion? Tacitus thought that Nero was the one responsible for blaming the Christians:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Annals_(Tacitus)/Book_15#44 [wikisource.org]
although I'm not clear what he means by 'all who pleaded guilty', whether that refers to pleading guilty to setting to the fires or just pleading guilty to being a Christian.

Re:IRL raids

[zsau]

Funny; we have similar laws here in the Australian state of Victoria. Christians generally oppose them, largely because it has made it harder for them to state their reasonably-held opinions of Muslims. (I mean, if you believed in one God the Father, the Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, and in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, and who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, then surely you think Muslims are wrong, don't you?)

It's worth noting that free speech doesn't exist here except inasmuch as it's politically difficult to pass laws banning certain forms of speech. The state of Victoria has a charter of rights which merely states that the Parliament must consider such issues, and the Australian federal government has nothing even remotely similar.

Yet we join forces invading Iraq and Afghanistan saying we're giving them freedom.

This experience has cemented the view in my mind that there's no such thing as "god-given" or "constitutional" rights; the only rights we have are the ones we make sure we keep.

(To our credit, we were one of very few democracies that made it through the first half of the twentieth century without a disruption to the process — including changes of government (whichever party was in power in (September) 1914, 1917, 1940 and 1943 all lost the election); even the UK suspended elections.)

My introduction to Scientology

[angrytuna]

My first introduction to their practices was a Time magazine article my friend dug up from 1991, when I was trying to figure out what they were all about. It won an award, and is worth a look for those folks to don't understand the vitriol. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,972865,00.html [time.com]

Re:Germany got it right...

[denttford]

(-1, Uninformative.)

I know several people who have used the Vatican's library, none were Catholic, all were doing proper academic work (i.e. not God's work), all had access to manuscripts 500-1000 years old.

The "Kabbalah" mostly hides in plain site; there are plenty of publicly accessible places to buy texts that been considered heretical even by most Jewish mystics throughout the centuries, if you know where to look. Jewish mysticism's tradition of hiding relies less on lack of publication and more on illiteracy in rabbinic Hebrew/Aramaic, ignorance of traditional law and homily, ignorance of the multifaceted and particular use of the preceding in allegory. Most modern day "mystics" are plenty happy about writers like Crowley and Berg (well, they don't like Berg the man, rather the nonsense he peddles) because it keeps the curious masses away.

Oh, and knock yourself out with the Dead Sea Scrolls [wikipedia.org]. They're not in Italy. You can review almost all of it now. The secrecy rule disappeared almost 40 years ago. They're also kinda boring.
Admittedly, a cheap printing of the whole thing as text would be nice, but any decent university library will have DJD.

So, pretty much, there was nothing correct in your post.

Re:IRL raids

[flieghund]

No christian churches label you an 'oppressive person' and send their office of special affairs after you.

Well, not anymore, anyway. I seem to recall this thing called the Spanish Inquisition. Nowadays no one expects it, but at one time it was the "office of special affairs" for the most prominent Christian church.

Re:Germany got it right...

[denttford]

Sigh.

Please [vatican.va] stop [tertullian.org] posting [skypoint.com].

Just because you can't google image search for every text you'd like does not mean they are inaccessible. Sometimes, if there is no facimile edition of the text, or reputable printing, you actually have to go to the library where they are held and work. Shocking, I know. It's called scholarship. I also can't help but notice that you have shifted your argument from the current state of affairs to a "long, long history."

In any case, I suspect you like things with "secret" in the title, so perhaps you should order this [vatican.va]? Should you actually want to try some real work, fill out one of these [ox.ac.uk] out and go to a reading room.

Re:IRL raids

[Anonymous Coward]

OK

http://www.whyaretheydead.net/ [whyaretheydead.net]

Buddhism's a much bigger raft than just Zen

[billstewart]

Zen's an appealing form of Buddhism - pure, simple, difficult, uncluttered; if I were a Buddhist that's probably the form I'd pursue. But Buddhism's much broader than that, picking up all sorts of local cultures and pre-Buddhist religions and random other stuff along the way. Tibetan Buddhism incorporates a lot of Tibetan Bon religion, with all kinds of scary demons, mountain spirits, prayer flags, and the like. The Pure Land Buddhists worship Amitbha Buddha, also called Amida, hoping to enter the Pure Land in the next life as a result of their devotions; you'll see Jodo and Hongwanji missions spreading that. In a rather opposite direction, there are the Nichiren Shoshu people who chant their Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo to get their wishes granted. I'm inclined to suspect that Zen is more austere than what the Buddha himself believed...

Re:IRL raids

[zsau]

The Islamic Council of Victoria sued a Christian group over things they said during a service; I don't know what the Muslims wanted to get out of it, but apparently five years later the result an agreement that everything was all happiness and roses [catchthefire.com.au]. I'm not aware of any other attempt to sue under this law, but in this particular case the law was much more divisive then just letting religious people speak; after the Islamic Council began to sue Catch the Fire Ministries, various Christian groups turned up to Muslim services to try and find any possible cause for them to sue in response.

On the other hand, under federal law Albert Langer was sent to jail for describing a way to vote in federal elections that was valid at the time.

Re:Grab Your Masks!

[saitoh]

Correct, Virginia (in the US for those who aren't) is one such location. At the Richmond event, police were at least humane enough to warn protesters about the law before any actions were taken (none reported).

Re:Grab Your Masks!

[Accordion Noir]

Some anti-mask laws in various places in the USA's stated intent is to prevent the Klu Klux Klan (white supremacist group) from using anonymous mass parades to terrorise their opponents. Recently these "klan laws" have been used to threaten protesters wearing giant puppets parodying the US Army's School of the Americas at domonstrations in Columbus, Georgia.