Banning Scientology Doesn't Make Wikipedia More Credible | Education IT | ZDNet.com

Banning Scientology doesn't make Wikipedia more credible | Education IT | ZDNet.com: "Even I quoted the Register, above; the Reg is quite newsy but puts a biting, sarcastic spin on just about everything within its pages. This doesn’t make it invalid, but how skilled are our students at sorting out even satire or sarcasm from a source?"

Wikipedia Bans Church of Scientology • The Register

Wikipedia bans Church of Scientology • The Register: "In an unprecedented effort to crack down on self-serving edits, the Wikipedia supreme court has banned contributions from all IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its associates.

Closing out the longest-running court case in Wikiland history, the site’s Arbitration Committee voted 10 to 0 (with one abstention) in favor of the move, which takes effect immediately.

[...] This is the fourth Scientology-related Wikicourtcase in as many years, and in addition to an outright ban on Scientology IPs, the court has barred a host of anti-Scientology editors from editing topics related to the Church.

Many Wikifiddlers have vehemently criticized this sweeping crackdown. Historically, the site's cult-like inner circle has aspired to some sort of Web 2.0 utopia in which everyone has an unfettered voice. An organization editing Wikipedia articles where it has a conflict of interest is hardly unusual, and in the past such behavior typically went unpunished."

Germany's Battle Against Scientology - TIME

Germany's Battle Against Scientology - TIME: "bringing the full weight of the Federal government to bear on an organization that officials say has only 6,000 members in Germany would be seen as a disproportionate response given the political cost — Germany has been criticized by the U.S. State Department for restrictions it already places on Scientology. As one official put it, 'We have other things to worry about.'"

Administrative Court of Berlin Orders Immediate Removal of Anti-Scientology Posters

On Jan 24, 2009 I blogged about the anti-Scientology posters in front of the CoS in Berlin: "Another act of discrimination towards Scientology by the German authorities. Government agencies have no business using public resources to take side in controversies regarding matters of personal beliefs."

I am pleased to see that this was exactly the opinion of the Administrative Court of Berlin who declared that the district of Berlin violated their duty of neutrality. The Court ordered the immediate removal of the posters.

I personally think there also should be administrative penalties towards those responsible for this obvious act of discrimination.

Anti-Scientology Plakataktion der Stadt Berlin mußte umgehend entfernt werden | Politik - Gesellschaft & Soziales - OA News: "Das Gericht führt weiterhin aus, dass die Bezirksverwaltung ihre Neutralitätspflicht verletzt hat und eine derartige Aktion gesetzlich nicht gerechtfertigt ist. Das Berliner Verwaltungsgericht ordnete die sofortige Entfernung von Anti-Scientology Propaganda vor der Scientology Kirche Berlin an."


Related posts: -Berlin_Posters-

Scientology Banned in Karangada, Kazakhstan

Scientology has been banned in a province of Kazakhstan, though the decision is still under appeal.

This obvious act of discrimination follows in the wake of a wave of recent cases of human-rights violation by Kazakhstan's government against its religious minorities (see second article below).

In the words of Evgeniy Zotis, one of the few in Kazakhstan who oppose these acts, "You could hardly imagine a better way to discredit our country".

Interfax-Religion:

"Karaganda, February 16, Interfax - The Economic Inter-District Court of Karaganda, the administrative center of the Karaganda region in Kazakhstan, has banned the Church of Scientology in the Karaganda region."

[...] Meanwhile, the scientologists said they intend to appeal the verdict.

"We will not put up with attempts to violate our right to the freedom of religion in Kazakhstan," President of the Karaganda-based Church of Scientology Vadim Vitushkin said in a statement.

Washington Times - FEFFERMAN: What values are shared?:

[...] Recent human-rights violations by Kazakhstan's government against its religious minorities, however, cause some in the United States and Europe to doubt whether Kazakhstan has earned the right to chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, as it is scheduled to do in 2010.

The act of Kazakstan's Constitutional Council in overturning parts of a repressive new religious law on Feb. 11 is a step in the right direction. However, the political climate in the country continues to bode ill for religious minorities, and human-rights experts fear the parliament may still pass other new repressive measures.

Even without the new religious law, Kazakhstan has recently taken actions against its religious minorities that cause serious concerns.

The recent jailing of Unification Church missionary Elizaveta Drenicheva for teaching her church's doctrine on original sin is only one example of how Kazakhstan's view of religious freedom diverges from the mainstream of the community of nations.

[...] Article 18 of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulates that everyone has the right to express their religious views both privately and in community. Yet the judge sentenced Mrs. Drenicheva to a two-year prison term merely for sharing her religion with people who had come voluntarily to the church's center in Almaty to hear her lectures.

The clampdown on smaller religious groups in Kazakhstan has been attracting the attention of human-rights groups for some time. The Forum 18 News Service reports Kazakhstan has resumed jailing Baptists who refuse to register their worship services with the government. Khrishna devotees have witnessed their properties bulldozed and their leader banned from the country. The Church of Scientology reports that its centers and members' homes have been illegally raided by the secret police (KNB).

Coupled with government and police actions, a wave of negative media reports against minority religious groups has targeted Seventh-day Adventists, Baptists, Pentecostals, Ahmadi Muslims and Jehovah's Witnesses, as well as the newer groups. "All these articles have one source," claims Almaty Helsinki Committee head Ninel Fokina, "the KNB secret police."

In the early years after the demise of the former Soviet Union, Kazakhstan was often seen as a model of human rights and religious pluralism. Its majority Muslim population seemed willing enough to live in peace with its substantial Russian Orthodox Christian minority, together with a growing segment of Western religions. The recent shift toward repression reflects growing pressure from the two mainstream groups and old-guard secularists of the communist era that there are now "too many religions" in Kazakhstan.

[...] Some voices within Kazakhstan have spoken out against the repression. Commenting on the Drenicheva case, Evgeniy Zhovtis, chief of the Kazakhstan International Bureau of Human Rights, stated: "You could hardly imagine a better way to discredit our country."

Mrs. Drenicheva's case is now on appeal, but the 30-year old Russian missionary remains in prison. She is considered in the human-rights community to be a prisoner of conscience. Freedom House, the oldest human-rights group in the United States, said it "strongly urges the court of appeals to throw out Ms. Drenicheva's conviction on the grounds that it is a clear miscarriage of justice and the continuation of a worrisome campaign in Kazakhstan against minority religious groups."

France Slowly Waking Up?

Slowly, anti-cult oriented governments seem to increasingly realize the error of their ways. I pointed out already the surprising comments from German officials rejecting a ban on Scientology, and the subsequent distrust of organizations such as the one led by Ursula Caberta.

Some signs point to France going in the same direction, as they sternly admonish the anti-cult organization Mivuludes for trying to come up with a similar list of cults as the one that brought France in trouble in the past. The Ministry of Interior points to the effect Human Rights violation reports from the US about France have had, but also similar reports from the European OSCE (Organization for the security and Cooperation in Europe).

In French:

Danièle Gounord » Blog Archive » Une nouvelle « liste Noire » en préparation:

"Selon l’article, La Ministre de l’Intérieur fait part, dans ce courrier adressé à François fillon, de son « étonnement » face à ce changement de cap de la part de la Miviludes, « sans concertation interministérielle préalable », et pointe sévèrement du doigt la démarche : atteinte à la liberté de conscience, retour en arrière, fragilisation de la France sur la scène européenne et internationale, pointée du doigt, notamment, à chaque rapport du département d’Etat américain, mais aussi de l’OSCE (Organisation pour la sécurité et la coopération en Europe) sur son intransigeance en matière de liberté religieuse."

Ursula Caberta Wants to Give Up

Scientology-Gegnerin Caberta geht im Ärger | hpd (in German)

Ursula Caberta is angry that her job as head of the Working Group on Scientology is not valued enough and has asked a transfer.

Recent news have been devastating for Caberta.

On Nov. 22, Germany declined to ban Scientology, with comments that clearly showed Caberta's allegations to be ridiculous.

On Jan. 22, Valkyrie, the latest and controversial movie of Tom Cruise, received a five-minute standing ovation in Berlin, in spite of Cruise being a prominent member of Scientology. There is no doubt Caberta considered this and the subsequent success of the movie as another failure of her work.

Her only "success" was to gain the support of Shallonymous - which counts for nothing since they precisely are just that: shallow and nowadays mostly ignored.

Ministry Won't Delist Scientology Website

Ministry won't delist scientology website - Report Card

On Jan. 13, I posted about Anonymous finding out that the UN shop was selling the book, "Youth for Human Right", Flooded the shop with calls and email, and got it to put it down, at least online.

This time around, they were not as successful:

The B.C. Education Ministry says it has no plan to delist a reference to a scientology website from two of its teaching guides. [...]

The link remains and the teaching guides -- one for Social Justice 12 and one for K-12 called Making Space - will continue to list YHRI as a supplementary resource, the ministry says. [...]

The fact that YHRI is included in official teaching guides "doesn't constitute ministry endorsement of the website, nor of the organization," the ministry stated.

Note, however, that even the news outlet does not give in automatically in the cry-wolf comments that automatically follow any mention of Scientology in a news article, as it writes:

(The debate over scientology - religion or cult? - is obviously a hot one. I'm not able to get a lawyer's ruling on the accusations that are flooding in as comment so in some cases, I'm just not posting. Also, several people have tried to post a lengthy Penthouse interview with Ron Hubbard Jr. It's too long, post a link instead.)

Related blog entry: R-Youth4HumanRight-
Related blog entry: R-CryWolfComments-

Second Chance Scientology Base

The Albuquerque Journal has an article about Second Chance, in which it claims that it was not just partially based on on Scientology, but that Scientology was its very skeleton.

I think this is very plausible. The president and her husband being Scientologists, and the program being funded in part by wealthy Scientologist such as Randy Suggs, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Scientologist businessman and part-owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks major league baseball team.

Unlike the "Study Tech", that could partially stand on its own (see Will Smith schools), Scientology does not mix well with other methods in such a field as drug and crime rehabilitation. You need to tackle with the root cause of these deep-seethed problems, and you can't really do that without addressing what in Scientology is considered as the prime source of what they call aberration. Other methods can come as a support to it, but I don't see how it could be the other way around.

This being said, it does not necessarily mean that the program is harmful or ineffective, and it seems that on the contrary it did have positive results, as I blogged about back in Dec. 30, but I agree that such an evaluation should be conducted through independent and objective means.

It is not going to happen anyway, because the mere link with Scientology is going to bring distrust to the program, hamper its government funding, and make it the target of close scrutiny for anything they'll do that isn't quite kosher. As it already happened, by the way.

SND Scientology Base Denied By Officials

Local German Officials Discriminate Towards Scientology

Another act of discrimination towards Scientology by the German authorities. Government agencies have no business using public resources to take side in controversies regarding matters of personal beliefs. Of course, in Germany, given the anti-Scientology atmosphere, it isn't going to be an issue, but it still is improper and would be illegal in many other countries.

Official Resistance: Berlin District Posts Warning About Scientology - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International:

"A poster denouncing Scientology has gone up on a public kiosk outside the Scientology headquarters in Berlin. Local officials warn that Scientology may be 'undemocratic'posted a warning sign near the city's Scientology headquarters, explaining that local authorities mistrust the organization. [...]

A public kiosk on the sidewalk in CharlottenburgThe district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf [...]

'expresses its opposition to the activities of the Scientology sect in this district and in Berlin, and hopes that responsible parties in Berlin will watch the Scientology sect with a critical eye in the near future, and that any new information will be made public.' [...]

the poster doesn't mention [Cruise]. It only says that local officials see 'a possible danger to democratic society' in the 'increased activities of Scientology in this district.'"

Update Jan 27: The Telegraph claims the poster is the result of a campaign over fears Valkyrie will boost membership in the CoS:

Germany fights Scientology boost linked to Valkyrie release - Telegraph: "German authorities have launched a propaganda campaign against Scientology over fears the latest Tom Cruise film Valkyrie will boost membership."


Related posts: -Berlin_Posters-

Unification Church Lection Imprisoned

nurel : Message: Unification Church lection imprisoned in Kazakhstan: "A few days ago, a lecturer for the Unification Church in Kazakhstan, Elizaveta Drenicheva, was sentenced to two years in prison, essentially for teaching the UC's version of the doctrine of original sin. She is currently in jail awaiting her appeal. The basis for her conviction is that it is illegal in KZ to denigrate another person or group on the basis of their lineage, and the UC teaches that its members produce children free from original sin.

More at http://moon.foreignlands.org/rep/jan09/Drenicheva/drenicheva.html"

Dentist Settles Sexual and Scientology Harassment

Chicago dentist to settle forced Scientology, harassment case -- chicagotribune.com: "A Chicago dentist has agreed to pay $462,500 to settle federal allegations that he violated U.S. discrimination laws by sexually harassing workers and by forcing employees who wanted to keep their jobs to submit to indoctrination in the tenets of Scientology. [...] A consent decree resolves a lawsuit, but doesn't include an admission of guilt by the defendant."

Anonymous Pulls CoS Book Out of Shop

UN is selling Co$-PR. UPDATE: LOL NOT ANYMORE (at least online) - Why We Protest | Activism Forum

Anonymous found out that the UN shop was selling what is probably a CoS front group book, "Youth for Human Right" . Flood of calls and email to put it down, which the UN does, at least online.

My question is- isn't that a free speech abuse?

What would be the reason to ask then to put it down?

Everybody on WWP of course automatically agrees that this is bad bad bad, but I have not seen what is the argument for it.

If a Christian group publishes a book dealing with Human Rights, should it be banned too?

The UN shop website has in fact very few items.

One of it is entitled "1001 Inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World".

Is it OK for this book to be sold and not the Human Right one of the CoS? Why?

What about if the Muslim book would be called "1001 Inventions: L. Ron Hubbard Heritage in Our World"?

What if another book they sell, "Doing Business 2008" was published by Wise, another CoS front group? Would it be reason enough to make a scandal and ask the UN shop to pull it out right away?

I am only pondering...


Relate blog entry: R-Youth4HumanRight-

Second Chance Tries to Garner Support

Rehab Center Tries To Garner Support: Letters Sent To State Legislators

On Wednesday, [Joy Westrum, president of the soon-to-be evicted Second Chance rehabilitation program], sent out an e-mail to several state senators and representatives asking them to "encourage the mayor and the city of Albuquerque to do everything possible to resolve any legitimate concerns regarding the lease with Second Chance" for the old West Side jail building. [...]

Judges, law enforcement officials and elected officials have been critical of the program for its unconventional treatment methods, its unwillingness to disclose financial information and its alleged ties to Scientology.

Valkyrie and Scientologists

In this blog, a Scientologist, after having watched the film "Valkyrie", is furious against the German government for its discrimination towards Scientologists, as compared to Cruise now defending the "Good German" image.

This is one of the things I find remarkable in Cruise's choice.

As I blogged already, I declared his choice a winner already before the release of the film, on the sole ground that he did it out of the depth of his soul, no matter the concrete outcome. That these outcomes are now turning out to be good, very good even, there was no way of knowing that at the time, so this remains admirable.

The second thing I find admirable in Cruise's choice, is that he pushed through with this idea in spite of all the wrong (and I hope in time they really will be looked upon as serious wrong) Germany does in its discrimination towards Scientologists. That Cruise could put all this aside and push through with an idea in which he believed in, in spite of all that wrong, is truly commendable.

I invite Scientologists to share the same spirit. Obviously, discrimination is ugly, very ugly even, and when it translates in actual mass killing, abominable. But the two issues really are separate. The noble way is the Cruise way, at least in this case, and eventually it may do more to change pre-conceived and prejudiced idea than any angry and accusatory reaction. Or not. This just does not change the beauty of the act by itself.

Second Chance Therapy Working

I only followed the Second Chance issue, a drug rehabilitation center for inmates, from afar.

Apparently, Scientology critics have been blasting the center because "Some of its training manuals are based on research by L. Ron Hubbard" - irrespective of whether the program is effective or not.

It seems the center will now have to close because it built a sauna within its premises, for which it did not have a permit, and also for housing inmates from other counties who may not have been eligible for the rehabilitation program. Abruptly shuttling people from the facility on Christmas Eve, caught on camera by police officers watching the facility after they had been tipped off, did not help.

This being said, Carlsbad Magistrate Judge Henry Castaneda who assigned inmate to the center finds it a pity that the center would have to close, because, as he reports, the results have been very positive:

"They have been successful on coming out. They have learned from the program. I see them on the street and they look healthy," he added. [...]

Castaneda reported at that time that he has sentenced 11 individuals to the Second Chance Center since late last year. He said seven have completed the program and five were currently in the residential drug rehab program that takes six months to complete.

Castaneda said the individuals he has sent to the program through the court's alternative sentencing program had been habitual drug offenders. Since their completion of the program, he noted, he sees them on the street but has not seen them back in court.

"They are holding down jobs and they look healthy," he said Monday.

Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chaves, himself, though he terminated the city's lease with Second Chance (who has until Jan. 31 to vacate the facility), qualifies the abrupt termination of the center as "an unfortunate end to what could have been an alternative drug treatment center".

Bavaria Confirms the Closing of a Kindergarten Linked to Scientology

The Administrative Court of Bavaria confirmed Monday the decision taken in February by the town of Munich to close a Kindergarten linked to Scientology. The alleged crime is that directors and educators are Scientologists, and that the children are therefore "at risk" of being submitted to an education impregnated with "totalitarian" values.

The case is still ongoing.

Press article in French.

Rwandan Convicton - Too Little Too Late

A United Nations-backed court in Tanzania on Thursday convicted one of the masterminds of the Rwandan genocide, Theoneste Bagasora, a former Rwandan Army colonel.

That conviction seems pretty obvious (and one wonders why it took them 14 years to come to that conclusion!), but the reason I do not tag the title as "off topic" is because I wonder whether those who banned pro-Tutsis radio under the pretense of ""harmful radio propaganda", then set their own hate broadcast station (the unfamous "Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines" (RTLM), largely considered as instrumental in justifying and motivating the killing), should not be likewise tried.

Hate speech is best opposed by free speech and the solution is not to try and thwart hate speech but to allow on the contrary more free speech, and I think the present example is a dramatic and tragic example of what happens when you only allow one view to be expressed, and ban the few counter-views that could at least help to balance them somewhat.

Wikipedia writes that

RTLM quickly became a popular station since it offered frequent contemporary musical selections, unlike the staid state radio, and quickly developed a faithful audience among youth-aged Rwandans

It is remarkable to note, as mentioned on that Wikipedia entry too, that it was precisely these youth-aged Rwandans, motivated and entranced by the the RTLM hate propaganda, that made up the bulk of the Interahamwe militia.

In such a context, the conviction of Bagasora, though of course fully justified, seems to me to only scratch the real cause of the genocide. I believe that the United Nations-backed court should take a much deeper look into what really made such a horrendous event possible.

Falun Gong, Forcible Deprogramming, and China

Quite a long time ago (I believe it was 2001), I wrote a page about the Chinese government apparently being in bed with forcible deprogrammers to adopt/adapt their method to their own brand of indoctrination.

Now I receive the following e-mail:

I enjoyed your website and I have noted some of the same issues regarding the Chinese cooperation with "international anti-cult networks". Besides the wholesale adoption of the ACM material by the Chinese, I am perplexed by the new reeducation system being so dramatically different from the Chinese norm of reeducation camps. Do you know of specific instances of ACM consulting for the Chinese government? Or other consulting by westerners?

I did not follow the issue since then, and nothing came up at my conscious level during all this time. If anybody has information on that subject, kindly post it here.

PS - I also blogged recently about a similar instance I came about regarding Saudi Arabia. However, in that particular case, the participants still have what seems to be a reasonable level of choice as to whether they want to engage in such discussion or not. That makes the whole difference, and in fact, in such a context, I do think the approach is a good idea. It of course would definitely be a bad idea and a gross human right abuse if it was imposed through force, as seemed to be the case in China when I created the page seven years ago.

German Ban - Historical Perspective

I personally oppose Scientology because of its cultic framework, in which an otherwise sound and original belief system exists. This framework leads the CoS into cultic behavior, and that behavior is rightly opposed by critics.

The problem, however, is that the critical movement itself currently exists in a cultic framework as well, that leads critics into cultic behavior. These could go as far as help to precipitate mass tragedies like Jonestown and Waco, on top of countless individual drama.

This is the reason I oppose the anti-cult and anti-Scientology movement in its present form, because they in fact represent a greater and more immediate danger to basic human rights than cults themselves.

Trying to scare the public and authorities through anti-Scientology myths may work in the short run but is doomed to fail in the long run because these obviously lack sufficient basis in truth to satisfy legal and academic requirements.

This is what the recent lifting of the German project to ban Scientology shows.

But there is more.

Graham, a moderate Scientologist, places the German ban project lifting in an interesting historical perspective where he shows that basically the same type of events happened in Australia, the UK, Spain and with the American IRS, among others. What is more, he points to the interesting fact that in many cases these investigations not only led to a possible ban lift but also led to a full religious status recognition for the CoS!

Grahame also argues that the burden of proof on the Internet is not the same as for legal situations and that this explains why anti-Scientology myths can have a long life on such a media and fool uncritical masses such as Anonymous.

In the long run, however, I believe that the fact that courts, government, and academics more and more refuse to follow anti-cult fanatics in their crusade, is one of the factors that increases the cognitive dissonance in the public and helps them question what they read on so-called critical web sites.