London Anon Protester Given Court Summons For Sign Declaring Scientology a Cult
Posted by: RB on: May 11, 2008
A London protester who goes by the pseudonym “Epic Nose Guy” was handed a Court Summons yesterday at Operation: FairGameStop in London for not giving up his right to accurately refer to the Cult of Scientology as a cult. ENG was told by an officer to discontinue displaying his sign and was given 30 minutes to do so. ENG decided not to do this, on the grounds that Scientology does in fact reflect multiple dictionary definitions of cult and that he has the right to call a spade a spade.
This is absolutely ridiculous on multiple grounds. Firstly, Scientology does indeed fit the bill of being a cult.
Here are some relevant attributes of cults as specified by a the American Heritage Dictionary:
- a particular system of religious worship, esp. with reference to its rites and ceremonies.
- a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.
- a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.
- any system for treating human sickness that originated by a person usually claiming to have sole insight into the nature of disease, and that employs methods regarded as unorthodox or unscientific
Secondly, why should Scientology get special consideration? Scientology itself calls psychiatry an evil nazi pseudoscience that is responsible for many of the worst crimes of the Holocaust and for many of the greatest problems facing humanity today and in the past. On what grounds is it okay for Scientologists to make these types of disingenuous statements while it is not okay for protesters of Scientology to apply the semantically valid label “cult” to Scientology? Is it because Scientology is a religion? Well, this is not at all a valid differentiating factor, for two reasons. Firstly, Scientology is not a religion, and England does not recognize it as such. Secondly, even if it were a religion, so what? Can we please move past the inane notions that religions are special and that religion is a license for special treatment?
For more on Scientology from The Frame Problem, click here.
2 Responses to "London Anon Protester Given Court Summons For Sign Declaring Scientology a Cult"
May 17, 2008 at 4:49 am
I too saw ENG getting his court summons, and was both flabbergasted and impressed, both at the City Police’s broad interpretation of the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 (which as I’m sure you know provides protection for individuals against hatred, not for organisations against criticism), and the boy’s polite, honest steadfastness. The police were way out of line in their behaviour and it’s at least suspicious to me that their force, with its links to the ‘Church’, should have chosen this path, when the Met later in the day did not.
I remember Rowan Atkinson et al said situations like this would arise, and they of course were right at the time. Of course it would be ideal if there were legislation which could be used fluidly to deal with the changing definitions and mixtures of religion and race in this country, but there probably isn’t. This legislation may have had a somewhat worthy intent, but as usual with New Labour it simply wasn’t thought through. I have no doubt ENG will win when he has his day in court, and I hope the media watches the CO$ closely in its response.
May 14, 2008 at 2:46 am
As I believe it is.
I believe that OSA is using a PR pack to the police chief, that promotes the good works of Narconon, ect.
This sets the chief up to believing that the CO$ is doing good works. It must be understood, that little if any of the money used for these programs does not come out of the CO$, it is regged/ solicited on a direct donation basis. I suspect some of it even gets siphoned off.
This PR pack is to make the Co$, look good through it’s front groups, and hide the facts that there are NO OT’s and that the CO$ is failing to deliver what it promises, and is extremely active in suppressing those who, would speak out against it’s attendant fraud.
I suggest that all police chiefs be provided with the mulititude of Judges decisions regarding the CO$ tactics.
A great “training” video for this is the Scott Mayer video on Xenu.net in the clearwater hearings.