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Weekend Planner: November 7–8, 2009
Photo by exMOHAX
Led by the group Anonymous and their ongoing campaign against the Church of Scientology, Project Chanology, protesters gathered outside the church's Toronto headquarters on Sunday to mark Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's birthday. It was the second such worldwide protest in just over a month; the last protest—a surprisingly massive one—took place on February 10th.
More photos from our Flickr Pool after the jump.
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what are they protesting exactly?
and what's with the masks?
Matty, our post about the last protest pretty much explains everything.
Top pic - holy shit, it's Bono from the 80s!
scientology = cult
i don't care about scientology one way or another -and certainly not enough to put a mask on and dance around outside- but, damn, these photos are really really good.
Weird: I was in Ottawa on Saturday for my friend's wedding, and our limo to the ceremony (yeah, yeah, I know) got stuck in an anti-Scientology protest...this, mere hours after my friend was late for our brunch date 'cause she got caught in a St. Paddy's Day parade. But, sersiously, a Scientology protest? That's pretty frigging ace if you ask me.
If you'd like to know what Anonymous was protesting, you can visit http://www.torontoanonymous.org.
There are alot of things actually. It's not the beliefs - everyone can believe as they choose. We encourage those member of the Church who find the beliefs useful to continue practicing with a Freezone group - which practice Scientology outside of the grips of the currupt Church of Scientology.
It is the policies of the Church of Scientology that are being protested - policies such as 'fair game', which states that any Scientologist may harass, sue, lie to, or even destroy a critic of Scientology (hence why Anonymous wear masks). They say that 'fair game' was cancelled, however the order on which that was stated actually reads that the policy will no longer be referred to as 'fair game', but the policy WILL remain in effect. Google "Operation Freakout" for an example of the Church's fair game policy in action.
This still goes on today - just ask the handful of protesters who were identified by the Church. They have been followed, some even had threatening letters sent to them, have received harassing phone calls, and some have even had their parents and grandparents approached by intimidating people. The Church even released several videos on YouTube (which have since been taken down due to ToS violations) slandering several LA-area protesters who were identified.
And that's just ONE issue that Anonymous has with the policies of the Church!
Visit http://www.whyweprotest.net for many many MORE details about the crimes of the Church of Scientology.
Sure, great photos, funny masks -- but just wait until they decide your religion isn't good enough for them. Like it or not, freedom of religion should be afforded even to those you don't care for.
[9] - did you not read about WHY they're protesting what scientology does? it's not that anonymous 'doesn't care for' scientology, exactly...read [8], or the previous posts on torontoist about the topic.
The protests are more about the church's methodology than its ideology.
The protests aren't about the religion (or "religion") at all, in fact.
Anonymous is not against freedom of religion.
We protest the abuse, deception, and fraud that the Church of Scientology regularly commits against its own members. We protest the fact that they break up families, bankrupt people of their life savings, and neglect the children in their care.
When you hear the accounts of people who were trapped in this cult, there is no questioning that the CoS cares NOTHING about freedom. They are experts in isolating, intimidating, and controlling their members.
For those who are not yet informed about these awful practices, we are here to educate you. Please take the time to truly learn what this organization is all about.