Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday voiced “concerns” about the Church of Scientology after a senator detailed explosive allegations including torture, imprisonment and coerced abortions.
Rudd said the accusations, made by independent Senator Nick Xenophon in parliament but denied by the organization, were “grave” and needed further consideration.
“Many people in Australia have real concerns about Scientology. I share some of those concerns,” the prime minister said.
“I don’t want to rush into any judgment on this, other than to say [Xenophon] raised concerns and made some serious allegations,” he said.
“Let us proceed carefully and look carefully at the material he has provided before we make a decision on further parliamentary action,” he said.
Xenophon on Tuesday branded the secretive group, whose high-profile adherents include Tom Cruise and John Travolta, a “criminal organization” and called for a review of its tax-exempt status as a religion.
He presented letters from former members claiming embezzlement, forced confinement, torture and blackmail, as well as the “ordering” of abortions and virtual house arrest of followers.
“Scientology is not a religious organization, it is a criminal organization that hides behind its so-called religious beliefs,” Xenophon told parliament.
“The letters received by me, which were written by former followers in Australia, contain extensive allegations of crimes and abuses that are truly shocking,” he said.
“These victims of Scientology claim it is an abusive, manipulative and violent organization,” he said.
The Church said Xenophon’s claims were “fascistic” and an “outrageous abuse of parliamentary privilege,” referring to his protection from libel laws.
“Senator Xenophon is obviously being pressured by disgruntled former members who use hate speech and distorted accounts of their experiences in the Church,” it said in a statement.
“They are about as reliable as former spouses are when talking about their ex-partner,” it said.
According to an excerpt of one of the letters, published in the Australian newspaper, staffers who fell pregnant were “put under duress” and members lived in fear of expulsion and being “severed” from their families.
“We had one staff member who used a coathanger and self-aborted her child. All her files were destroyed,” former staff member Aaron Saxton wrote.
Politicians in some European countries — including France, Germany, Greece and Russia — have accused the movement, which claims global membership of 12 million, of exploiting its followers financially.
Last month, French judges fined the group almost US$1 million for defrauding vulnerable followers.
Founded in the US in 1954 by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the Church of Scientology is officially recognized as a religion in Australia for tax purposes.
Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 percent of the population, down from 65.1 percent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 percent last year, up from 21.6 percent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million — the highest figure
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the US for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” said John Nowak, who leads field
‘THE RED LINE’: Colombian President Gustavo Petro promised a thorough probe into the attack on the senator, who had announced his presidential bid in March Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, a possible candidate in the country’s presidential election next year, was shot and wounded at a campaign rally in Bogota on Saturday, authorities said. His conservative Democratic Center party released a statement calling it “an unacceptable act of violence.” The attack took place in a park in the Fontibon neighborhood when armed assailants shot him from behind, said the right-wing Democratic Center, which was the party of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. The men are not related. Images circulating on social media showed Uribe Turbay, 39, covered in blood being held by several people. The Santa Fe Foundation
NUCLEAR WARNING: Elites are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers, perhaps because they have access to shelters, Tulsi Gabbard said After a trip to Hiroshima, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday warned that “warmongers” were pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Gabbard did not specify her concerns. Gabbard posted on social media a video of grisly footage from the world’s first nuclear attack and of her staring reflectively at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. On Aug. 6, 1945, the US obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb’s effects. Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving abut 74,000 people dead by the
RSS