Church of Scientology Addresses Anon

Response from the Church of Scientology regarding Sunday's protest:

This weekend we do anticipate that some members of this group "Anonymous" will turn up, as they have announced.

We take this seriously because of the nature of the threats this group
has made publicly. We will take every step necessary to protect our
parishioners and staff as well as members of the community, in
coordination with the local authorities.

As to our knowledge
of the organizers of the event, they are cyberterrorists who hide their
identities behind masks and computer anonymity.

Long before
selecting Scientology as its latest target, "Anonymous" hackers crashed
the Fox Web site and issued a perverse manifesto in a July 2007 video
message on the Internet:

We are the face of chaos... We ruin
the lives of other people simply because we can ... Hundreds die in a
plane crash. We laugh. The nation mourns over school shooting, we
laugh. We're the embodiment of humanity with no remorse, no caring, no
love, or no sense of morality.

"Anonymous" is perpetrating
religious hate crimes against churches of Scientology and individual
Scientologists for no reason other than religious bigotry. "Anonymous"
initially justified its attacks by claiming that the church's requests
to some Web sites to remove a stolen video of an internal church event
somehow constituted an affront to free speech. In fact, the church, as
would any copyright owner, had simply sent notices that the video
constituted a copyright violation. Similar notices are sent daily by
the television and recording industries, as well as the media to those
who display pirated, copyrighted works.

"Anonymous" alleged
"free speech" justification is belied by the fact that the video in
question has been seen by millions. It is "Anonymous" that has
repeatedly attempted to suppress free speech through illegal assaults
on church Web sites so as to prevent Internet users from obtaining
information from the church. They have also engaged in other
harassment, including threats of violence in telephone calls, fax
transmissions and e-mails, not to mention the Anonymous mailing of
white powder to dozens of our churches, requiring the services of law
enforcement.

"Anonymous" claims of altruistic purposes are no
different than those heard from any terrorist or hate group. We are not
the first to be targeted. Using Scientology's prominence, "Anonymous"
hopes to garner more attention. "Anonymous" has publicly proclaimed its
guiding materials to be the Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf. Quite
obviously, this group is not just anti-Scientology, it is anti-freedom
of religion, anti-free speech and anti-American.

Religious
bigotry of any nature is deplorable and profoundly affects the entire
community. The hate crimes of "Anonymous" should be condemned.

Anyone desiring information about the church of Scientology or the
context of the pirated video should visit the church Web site at
www.scientology.org to form their own opinions.

Source: http://www.sptimes.com/2008/02/07/Southpinellas/Church_of_Scientology.shtml

I am not in favor of Scientology - Just keeping you up to date on the status.

In questioning why it's on GameRiot - Anonymous is an online network of gamers and technical experts. Some of which are hackers, some politicians, their skills vary. If you do not know what Anonymous is or what it stands for please refrain from commenting in order to prevent misinformation.

Tags:

scientology

Report Post