Anonymous masked against Scientology
In the past, opposers of the Church of Scientology have often been harassed by members of this 'church'. To that, a solution has been found.
By Zvezdana Vukojevic
A man with a slightly too small, blank mask stands in front of the Church Of Scientology building in Amsterdam. “I don't get it. The rest should be here already. Maybe they moved to another spot?”
For a while now, the group called 'Anonymous' has been organising monthly protests against the Church of Scientology. This time the Scientologists beat them to it. They assigned their childred, age varying from 8 to 15 years old, to collect autographs for a petition to educate all thirty basic human rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948. A nice, neutral subject, and a great way to keep the protesters away.
The masked protestor sets off to find his allies. They are a stone-throw away, located on the Spui. The members of Anonymous don't want to be recognisable on photos, in fear of being harassed by Scientologists: “We take as much pictures as we can from them too, then we ask ex-members of the Church who they are, to get a clear view of the organisation.”
For the big audience, it's not immediately clear that the dozens of masked people are protesting against Scientology. Their signs hold a lot of cryptic messages like; 'Arc with your family' and 'Why are your parents SP's?'. The only clear sign says 'Your family misses you'. “The sings are full of jargon because they are directed to the members of the Church of Scientology themselves.” says 'Gerda de Vries', a hamster-masked spokeswoman. “They get what we mean with SP's and such. An SP is a Supressive Person, really everyone who is against the Church of Scientology. If your parents call you, you get sentence points.”
Anonymous is trying to expose the 'Disconnection Policy'. According to Anonymous, Scientologists have to break bonds with their family and friends. Unfortunately, the ex-members who have had experiences with this 'disconnection' couldn't be here today. De Vries: “The first few months they treat you as royalty. After that you get fairly agressive therapy and expensive courses where they shout in your face. Then there is voluntary jobs, exept they're not so voluntary. If you don't do it, you get more sentence points. If you get ill: even more sentence points, and you're not allowed to take any medicine. At a certain point you don't have any connection to the real outside world anymore. I stand here for those people.”
On Scientology's side, they dont think these monthly masked protests are funy at all. Volunteer Paul Rood is furious: “They are barking dogs in front of a firetruck. We are that truck, trying to extinguish fires. All they do is cause turmoil, while all we're trying to do is create a better society.” Head of External Business Julia Rijnvis calls the protesters cowards: “Why are they wearing masks? We have invited them to have a chat, but they refused. Supposedly we are keeping scientologists away from their families? Nonsense. People who are in our rehabilitation-program called 'Narconon' are stimulated to pick up the bonds with their family, bonds often bruken by drug-related problems.”
Rood: “We know for 99% sure that the pharmaceutical industry is behind Anonymous.” Rijnvis nods in agreement and says: “Look, Scientology is known to have fought the pharmaceutical industry for years now. In Australia, students who joined these protests recieved 50 dollars from someone with ties to a major pharmaceutical company. That could very well be happening here, too.”
Anonymous spokesman 'Henk de Vries' fiercely disputes this statement: ”That's rubbish. They haven't provided any evidence for that happening in Australia. Saturday, the government invaded the Church of Scientology in Belgium. Scientology is a dangerous cult and should be banned as soon as possible in The Netherlands aswell.”
