Scientology

Protesters target Scientology
Accuse church of having a cult mentality

fight with the Church of Scientology that began in cyberspace took to the streets yesterday - around the world.

Some three dozen young people, heeding the call of a loosely linked Internet collective called Anonymous, staged a morning protest outside the church's office at 10255 97 St.

They held placards, passed out pamphlets and encouraged passing motorists to sound their support.

"Our goal here today is to bring awareness to people about the church because they're very secretive and go to great lengths to hide their secrets," said one protester, who like his colleagues was wrapped up in a hood and scarf so as to be unrecognizable and who, like the others, refused to give his name.

"There is no active 'joining' of Anonymous," he said in explaining how the Edmonton protest came about.

"We are simply everyone and no one - a group of people with common ideas, mostly from the Internet."

The protesters offered a litany of complaints against Scientology, a church made famous by a membership that includes celebrities like actor Tom Cruise.

The protesters accused the church of having unorthodox views on medicine and psychology, a corporate structure and, they stressed, a cult mentality.

But the protesters added yesterday's demonstrations outside Scientology centres around the world followed recent aggressive efforts by the church to remove a leaked video of Cruise from the web.

"Basically, it's because they picked a fight with us on the Internet," said another young man. "We want free speech."

Local church staff, meanwhile, referred questions to their national office in Toronto - which describes Anonymous as "mask-wearing cyber-terrorists" - but said they planned to proceed yesterday with an afternoon service as usual.

"Anonymous is perpetuating religious hate crimes against churches of Scientology and individual scientologists for no reason other than religious bigotry," the national office said in a statement.