Moreover, I don't remember any Scientologists blowing up schools or military barracks, flying planes into buildings or beating their women for reading, driving, drinking or walking outside uncovered.
If Martin Brasheer, or anyone else at ABC, wants to worry about a religion, he should worry about one that celebrates misogyny, Antisemitism and murder of the infidels, JMHO.
I don’t have any problem if people asking the tenets of any religion, as long as it applies to all of them. Too often, Christians, Mormons, and Scientology are the only religions whose adherents have to defend their faith from such questions.
Yes, I heard someone say give Scientologists a break, God has to have something to laugh at now and then. Indeed, Scientologists are really bizarre.
They may not have flown planes into buildings, but they have operated in a more insidious way as a religious mafia, which makes even groups like the Moonies look mild.
“Show me any person who is critical of us and I’ll show you crimes and intended crimes that would stand a magistrate’s hair on end.” - L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Bulletin, 4 April 1965
“Somebody some day will say ‘this is illegal.’ By then be sure the orgs [Scientology organizations] say what is legal or not.”- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 4 January 1966, “LRH Relationship to Orgs”
“If attacked on some vulnerable point by anyone or anything or any organization, always find or manufacture enough threat against them to cause them to sue for peace.” - L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 15 August 1960, Dept. of Govt. Affairs
“The purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than to win. The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway, well knowing that
he is not authorized, will generally be sufficient to cause his professional decease. If possible, of course, ruin him utterly.”- L. Ron Hubbard, A MANUAL ON THE DISSEMINATION OF MATERIAL, 1955
“When we need somebody haunted we investigate...When we investigate we do so noisily always.”- L. Ron Hubbard, MANUAL OF JUSTICE, 1959
“So we listen. We add up associations of people with people. When a push against Scientology starts somewhere, we go over the people involved and weed them out. Push vanishes.” - L. Ron Hubbard, MANUAL OF JUSTICE, 1959
“A truly Suppressive Person or group has no rights of any kind and actions taken against them are not punishable.” - L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 1 March 1965, HCO (Division 1) “Ethics, Suppressive Acts, Suppression of Scientology and Scientologists”
Under Operation Snow White, “Scientology operatives committed infiltration, wiretapping, and theft of documents in government offices, most notably those of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Eleven highly-placed Church executives, including Mary Sue Hubbard (wife of founder L. Ron Hubbard and second in command of the organization), pled guilty or were convicted in federal court of obstructing justice, burglary of government offices, and theft of documents and government property. The case was United States vs. Mary Sue Hubbard et al., 493 F. Supp. 209 (D.D.C. 1979).” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Snow_White
Scientology is evil; its techniques are evil; its practice is a serious threat to the community, medically, morally, and socially; and its adherents are sadly deluded and often mentally ill… (Scientology is) the world’s largest organization of unqualified persons engaged in the practice of dangerous techniques which masquerade as mental therapy.” – Justice Anderson, Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia
one is part of a Federal Indictment against Scientology for Conspiracy against the Federal Government of the United States
“The crime committed by these defendants is of a breadth and scope previously unheard of. No building, office, desk, or file was safe from their snooping and prying. No individual or organization was free from their despicable conspiratorial minds. The tools of their trade were miniature transmitters, lock picks, secret codes, forged credentials and any other device they found necessary to carry out their conspiratorial schemes.”
–Federal prosecutor’s memorandum to the judge urging stiff jail sentences for 9 top leaders of Scientology who had pleaded guilty to criminal charges
The court record is] replete with evidence [that Scientology] is nothing in reality but a vast enterprise to extract the maximum amount of money from its adepts by pseudo scientific theories… and to exercise a kind of blackmail against persons who do not wish to continue with their sect…. The organization clearly is schizophrenic and paranoid, and this bizarre combination seems to be a reflection of its founder, L.Ron Hubbard.” – Judge Breckenridge, Los Angeles Superior Court
Here is more on them:
http://www.watchman.org/profile/sientpro.htm
http://www.watchman.org/sci/historyofterror.htm
http://www.believersweb.org/view.cfm?ID=607
http://www.clambake.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scandal_of_Scientology
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/cooper/sos.html
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/cpoint7
Is it an attack to question a spokesman for Islam to confirm or deny certain allegations about the meaning and scope of the word “jihad”?
Is it an attack to question a spokesman for Scientology to confirm or deny certain allegations about the origin of lfe on Earth?
In both cases, I would say “no”.
YMMV.