Anonymous Plans For 2nd World Wide Protest Against Church of Scientology On March 15th, Scientology Files Lawsuit
Riding on the success of their first global protest on February 10th (see here for Glosslip coverage), the internet activist group calling themselves Anonymous are finalizing their plans for the second wave of protest scheduled for this Saturday, March 15th.
Preparations for this latest event began almost immediately after more than 7000 people gathered world wide at Scientology centers last month. Anonymous plans to focus on Scientology's tax exempt status and the secret agreement they struck with the IRS in 1993. Many of those in Anonymous and Scientology critics-at-large, feel Scientology is receiving unfair benefits from the federal government, including the option to deduct up to 80% of their "fixed donation" costs for spiritual training and materials sold by the Church of Scientology to its members.
The IRS and the CoS refuse to unseal the exact details of this agreement and at least one lawsuit brought by an Orthodox Jewish family in LA seek disclosure and definition on the ruling as it pertains to these deductions. For more on that legal case, see here.
The St. Petersburg Times out of Clearwater, Florida has an article about the Anonymous protests planned for this weekend. In what most surely could have been predicted, CoS has filed a lawsuit with the Pinellas Circuit Court asking to have a restraining order put in to effect because of alleged "threats of violence" made by Anonymous.
The church is asking the Pinellas Circuit Court to bar Anonymous protesters from coming within 500 feet of Scientology buildings in downtown Clearwater during Anonymous' Saturday demonstration, which would be the group's second anti-Scientology rally in recent weeks.No hearing had been scheduled by late this morning.
Called a "petition for injunction for protection against repeat violence,'' the church's suit names 22 people, most from the Tampa Bay area, who the Church of Scientology believes to be members of Anonymous, which describes itself as a loosely organized group united against the injustices perpetrated by Scientology.
"The threats have included a 'formal declaration of war' and specific threats to assassinate or execute Rev. Heber Jentzsch, the president of the Church of Scientology International on or about March 13, 2008,'' the lawsuit states.
The suit says Scientology churches around the world have been vandalized and have received numerous threats of violence.
"Various members of the group (Anonymous) have encouraged the use of attacks, raids, bombs, hand grenades, machine guns and executions of Church leaders,'' the suit states.
Interestingly, as one of the only mainstream media outlets to cover this internet confrontation, at no point in my intensive, on-going and exhaustive investigation have I uncovered even the slightest hint or whiff of violence or threats being suggested, intimated, considered or even whispered by Anonymous towards Scientology. In fact, the video in question from the STPT article was immediately reported to FBI and YouTube authorities almost within the exact minute it appeared by Anonymous themselves. They also immediately issued a statement denouncing the video, and emphatically deny any involvement with its production, upload or appearance on the video hosting site. YouTube for it's part eventually took the video down.
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