"Imprisonment, Coerced Abortions, Embezzlement, Physical Violence, Blackmail"

Australian Senator Rips Into Church Of Scientology

Xenophon Vs Xenu

By Darryl Mason

The story breaks on Twitter, via journalist Latika Bourke :

(Senator Nick) Xenophon says claims of covered up murders, blackmail, torture, imprisonment and forced abortions within Church of Scientology.

Senator Nick Xenophon today, under parliamentary privilege :

Scientology is not a religious organisation. It is a criminal organisation that hides behind its so-called religious beliefs.

What you believe does not mean you are not accountable for how you behave.

The letters received by me which were written by former followers in Australia contains extensive allegations of crimes and abuses that are truly shocking. Crimes against them and crimes they say they were coerced into committing.

There are allegations of false imprisonment, coerced abortions and embezzlement of church funds; of physical violence and intimidation, blackmail and the widespread and deliberate abuse of information obtained by the organisation.

What we are seeing is a worldwide pattern of abuse and criminality. On the body of evidence, this is not happening by accident, it is happening by design.

These victims of Scientology claim it is an abusive, manipulative, violent and criminal organisation, and that criminality is condoned at the highest levels.

Senator Xenophon said he received eight letters from former members of the Church of Scientology after he first raised questions about the legitimacy of the church's tax exempt status. He has passed the letters alleging criminal activity onto the police and has called for more former members to come forward if they were witness to criminality inside the organisation.

Xenophon wants both police and parliamentary investigations into the Church of Scientology and a full review of its tax exempt status.

The Church Of Scientology quickly released a two page statement accusing Nick Xenophon of "Xenophobia".

Note the precise use of emotional trigger words throughout the statement :

"Senator Xenophon is obviously being pressured by former members who use hate speech..."

"Senator Xenophon's attempts to marginalise Scientologists....is fascistic and violates freedom of speech..."

"former members are notoriously unreliable as witnesses"

"this is a propaganda campaign that would suit a totalitarian regime, not Australia"

In a further attempt to cast immediate suspicion on the claims made by the whistleblowers and Senator Xenophon, the statement from the Church of Scientology also includes this lengthy quote from a British sociologist :

"The disaffected and the apostate are in particular informants whose evidence has to be used with circumspection. The apostate is generally in need of self-justification. He seeks to reconstruct his own past, to excuse his former affiliations, and to blame those who were formerly his closest associates. Not uncommonly the apostate learns to rehearse an ‘atrocity story’ to explain how, by manipulation, trickery, coercion, or deceit, he was induced to join or to remain within an organization that he now forswears and condemns. Apostates, sensationalized by the press, have sometimes sought to make a profit from accounts of their experiences in stories sold to newspapers..."

Presumably, Senator Xenophon is aware how far the Church of Scientology has gone in the past to foul the names of its critics, and those who accuse it of criminality, and illegitimacy.

The Church of Scientology should have taken up the suggestion of The Chaser's @DomKnight that Senator Xenophon is guilty of blatant Xenuphobia.

But the Church of Scientology don't like to talk about Xenu, in public :

(Xenu was) the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of his people to Earth in a DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and killed them using hydrogen bombs. Official Scientology dogma holds that the essences of these many people remained, and that they form around people in modern times, causing them spiritual harm

This is John Travolta as Xenu :



The Xenophon Review into the tax exempt status of the Church of Scientology should, of course, be extended to review the tax exempt status of all Australian churches and religious organisations.

UPDATE : Comments from Prime Minister Rudd :

"Many people in Australia have real concerns about Scientology."

"I share some of those concerns. Let us proceed carefully and look carefully at the material he has provided before we make a decision on further parliamentary action."

Nick Xenophon's Full Speech

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