“Anonymous”, the loose-knit anti-Scientology collective, staged a demonstration yesterday outside New York’s Church of Scientology Headquarters near Times Square; it was part of an international day of protest against the church. Anonymous has been expanding rapidly since their Message to Scientology video was posted on YouTube in January; it's been watched over 2 million times in the past three weeks. Among other things, the video accuses Scientology of censorship for threatening to sue websites who hosted the now-infamous Tom Cruise Scientology video. (Gawker refused to remove the video; be the 10 billionth SP to watch it here.)
Yesterday’s protest outside the headquarters on 46th Street amounted to roughly 100 masked gadflies cracking wise and chanting anti-Scientology slogans like “Tax the Cult”. Besides objecting to Scientology’s tax-exempt status, the protesters also blame the church for the death of adherent Lisa McPherson in 1995, their alleged use of child labor, and their “fair game” policy of aggressively silencing critics. Yesterday would have been McPherson’s 49th birthday.
In response to the demonstrations, the Church of Scientology issued a statement calling the protesters “a group of cyber-terrorists who hide their identities behind masks and computer anonymity” and “perpetuate religious hate crimes.” Anonymous hackers claim to have disrupted many official Scientology websites last month. A trilogy of YouTube videos documenting the New York protest begins here, but we've got to tell you, they're not exactly winning us over with these lousy production values.
Yesterday's anti-CoS demonstrations were also covered in Seattle by Seattlest, in Austin by Austinist, in L.A. by LAist (which also has video), in London by Londonist, and in Toronto by Torontoist
Photo: Ralph Hockens
