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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."

21 of 486 comments (clear)

  1. Grab Your Masks! by MostAwesomeDude · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

    --
    ~ C.
    1. Re:Grab Your Masks! by KodaK · · Score: 4, Informative

      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.)

      --
      --J(K) DOS is like Unix in exactly the same way that a pinto is like an aircraft carrier.
    2. Re:Grab Your Masks! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      explain the need for the mask

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

    3. Re:Grab Your Masks! by sqrt(2) · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

      --
      If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
    4. Re:Grab Your Masks! by Grimbleton · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yes, a Guy Fawkes mask.

    5. Re:Grab Your Masks! by Curtman · · Score: 4, Informative

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

  2. In other news: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative
    In Adelaide they submitted a march of their own to the council, nullifying our permit. It went ahead anyway, with well over two hundred attending: News story, Gallery.

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

  3. Re:Lets be fair to the Hubberdites by Kierthos · · Score: 5, Informative

    You are aware of Operation Freakout, 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.

    --
    Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
  4. Um... by Perseid · · Score: 4, Informative

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

  5. Re:Germany got it right... by rice_burners_suck · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  6. Sydney Protest Footage by essence · · Score: 4, Informative
  7. Re:Whats wrong with america? by Kierthos · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    --
    Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
  8. Their cameramen patroled public transit on 2/10 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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 with staged violence by anons. Make sure you catch it all on camera if you attend.

  9. Re:IRL raids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  10. A FAQ on Scientology AKA Church of Scientology by blind+biker · · Score: 4, Informative

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

    --
    "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
  11. Re:Waitaminute: by Kierthos · · Score: 4, Informative

    Also, it's possible that the judge was aware of Operation Freakout, 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.

    --
    Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
  12. Re:IRL raids by A+nonymous+Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    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)

  13. Re:IRL raids by zsau · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.)

    --
    Look out!
  14. Re:IRL raids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
  15. Buddhism's a much bigger raft than just Zen by billstewart · · Score: 4, Informative
    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...


    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  16. Re:IRL raids by zsau · · Score: 3, Informative

    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. 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.

    --
    Look out!