It appears that “Anonymous” – a loose-knit group of Internet
protesters united in their campaign against the Church of Scientology
– kept
its promise of worldwide demonstrations. This past Sunday,
activists identifying themselves as members of Anonymous appeared in
cities around the globe to peacefully
demonstrate against the Church and its so-called crimes.
Demonstrations occurred in a reported
93 cities worldwide, including Sydney, Los Angeles, New York,
London, Dublin, and Stockholm. Donning signs with slogans such as
“Knowledge is Free,” “Question $cientology,” and
“Enlightenment should not cost £100,000,” Anonymous took a
vocal stand against the Church of Scientology’s alleged human
rights violations and relentless suppression of dissent.
Demonstrations proceeded peacefully, with protesters concealing
themselves behind Guy Fawkes masks – among other things – as
popularized in the movie “V for Vendetta.”
Anonymous seemingly rose out of nowhere to declare war on the
Church late last January, claiming that the Church brainwashes its
members and drives them into bankruptcy through expensive spiritual
treatments. Anonymous’ medium of choice is YouTube. The group’s
first video, a shot-across-the-bow titled “Message
to Scientology,” now has over 2 million views. In it, Anonymous
promises to “expel” the Church from the Internet and
“systematically dismantle Scientology in its present form.”
While Anonymous’ exact origins are unclear, its members are
known to coordinate on social networking sites such as MySpace and
Facebook.
Additional videos appeared late last week, authored by a pair of
YouTube members identifying themselves as participants in Anonymous:
Anonymous1321
and Anonymous1942.
“Do not misread our intentions,” says Anonymous1321 in Anonymous
Message to Scientology, “ours is not to judge your beliefs. We
oppose the [Church] as a business, not a religion, of which it claims
to be both. How can a supposedly nonprofit organization cause its
believers to go bankrupt?”
Scientology officials condemned the demonstrations, equating
Anonymous to nothing more than “cyber-terrorists.” In an official
statement released later on Sunday, Church officials said that
“Anonymous is perpetrating religious hate crimes against Churches
of Scientology and individual Scientologists for no reason other than
religious bigotry.”
Previously, the Church of Scientology dismissed Anonymous,
offering little response to the group’s messages. “We don’t
get into responding to such threats on the Internet,” said Church
spokeswoman Janet Laveau in
an interview last week, later noting that “those wishing to
find out the Church of Scientology's views and to gain context …
have the right to search official
Church websites.”
Referring to the recent
attacks against Church websites, Scientology officials claim that
Anonymous has “repeatedly attempted to suppress free speech through
illegal assaults on church websites so as to prevent Internet users
from obtaining information … [in addition to engaging in] other
harassment, including threats of violence in telephone calls, fax
transmissions, and emails, not to mention the Anonymous mailing of
white powder to dozens of our churches.”
Organizers say the date of February 10 was picked to commemorate
the birthday of Lisa McPherson, who died under the Scientology’s
care in 1995. Criminal charges filed over McPherson’s
death were later dropped in 2000.
Lynn Fountain Campbell, a former Scientology member and
participant in the Los Angeles protests, explained the sudden rise of
Anonymous as a response to public apathy: “it’s just reached
critical mass. People aren’t scared anymore.”