I found this story on Reddit: Project Chanology responds to Scientology’s attempt to obtain unconstitutional restraining order against Anonymous protests, based on perjury and false allegations. And if you have an account, you can comment on this.
Very interesting. You really must read this post; it’s a great article discussing Scientology’s efforts to suppress an Anonymous group which has posted various materials denouncing Scientology.
And here’s an interesting quote from the article:
The aggressive legal stance adopted by Church of Scientology is typical of their “fair game” policy as described in a 1967 letter by Church founder and supreme authority L. Ron Hubbard. The policy states that enemies “may be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline,” or “tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed”.
As an individual who is not religious, I’m not trying to take sides, but here are the facts:
- An anonymous group has denounced Scientology through materials (inc. videos) distributed on the Internet
- Scientology, as any other religious group, is constitutionally protected to practice its beliefs
- The anonymous group has the constitutional freedom of expression
The debate in such matters, of course, is whether or not the freedom of expression goes as far as to infringe on the religious rights of others. And it is almost universally accepted (at least in the developed nations) that any freedom or right cannot be used to infringe on any freedom or right of another.
Thus, it could be said that the anonymous group has violated the rights of Scientologists — though they have not infringed, as Scientology has not been prevented from operating.
Yet, it is equally valid to claim that Scientology is attempting to infringe on the freedoms of the anonymous group, by petitioning to silence them. The courts have prevented this from occurring.
So are the courts siding with the anonymous? Or is there simply some disrespect for Scientology among the common people? It is well known that Scientology is the “religious” group most criticized by young technologists.
You simply must read the article.
