First of all, what I really wanted to title this article was “Scientology IS a dangerous cult”, but I’ve been too nervous to. I’ve sat here fearing that doing so could get me followed, harrassed, threatened, and personally investigated, as this appears to be a standard operating procedure in Scientology for dealing with critics. And this is when it hit me: could the supposed Church of Scientology be a terrorist organization? As many ex-members have said, they operate by instilling fear in ex-members and critics. They have been caught on a number of occasions following, spying on and intimidating those who investigate or criticize them. They are apparently ever-ready to threaten legal action. A number of ex-members have stated that they go to great lengths to dig up dirt on critics to use as blackmail against those who would speak ill of them. They are clearly not above using dishonesty to tarnish the credibility or ruin the lives of critics. In perhaps the most dramatic case, they attempted to frame a critic who had written a book critical of Scientology of making bomb threats to the “Church”, which resulted in her being arrested and enmeshed in 8 months of legal procedings which cost her $19,000. During this process she became so depressed that her weight fell to 83 pounds. But this wasn’t all the “Church” did to her. They also tried to have her placed in a mental institution (I wonder if this mental institution might have had PSYCHIATRISTS….that must have been a hefty conflict of interests on their part).

What do we call those who seek to supress dissenters through fear, and who are apparently willing to throw all considerations of honesty and respect for one’s fellow person out the window? Terrorists.

Now, does this mean that all Scientologists are terrorists? No, of course not. Similarly, the portion of the global Islamic population that participates in terrorism does not justify the inference that all Muslims are terrorists. But it appears to quite clearly be the case that terrorism is being done in the name of Islam and Scientology. And in the case of Scientology, it is being put into motion by the recognized “Church” officials. It was also once official policy of the “Church” to condone or even encourage the trickery, harrassment, suing and destruction of those who oppose it. Until this policy leaked out and started generating bad publicity, L. Ron Hubbard himself stood by his written endorsement of what amounts quite clearly to terrorism.

Follow this link (http://youtube.com/watch?v=LYnu5Q6ONbo#) to see ex-members speak about their experiences with Scientology. Included among the commentors are the author who was framed for bomb threats and attempted to have put in a mental institution, and a former Scientologist Internal Security officer who spent 4 years spying on, intimidating, threatening, and attempting to ruin the lives of those who would criticize the “Church”. In this video, ex-members accuse the organization of mind control techniques, totalitarianism, manipulation, and various forms of terrorism (though they never used this word themselves).

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