Russia’s Scientology book ban doesn’t go far enough
A Russian court in Sergut, Eastern Siberia has today ruled that Scientology books and recordings authored by L. Ron Hubbard have “have been found extremist and will be banned from distribution in Russia“.
To me this ban seems a little strange. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan of Scient0logy but I can’t decide what the aim of the book ban is going to achieve. It’s not like they’ve crippled Scientology by banning the books, so why bother?
Russian authorities have stated that the reason for the book ban is that the Scientology books encouraged people “to commit crimes motivated by ideological and religious hatred” and contained “ideas justifying violence in general and in particular any methods of resistance against critics of Scientology“.
Presumably both these claims refer to Scientology’s well publicised fair game policy which states that critics of the church “can be punished and harassed using any and all means possible.”
Although the term ‘Fair Game’ has been discontinued, the practice is still used and encouraged by the church today.
What I don’t understand is that if Scientology texts have been found to be in breach of Russian law then surely it follows that Scientology as a whole isn’t too far behind? It’s not like these are isolated texts that are rarely used by Scientology members.
As Yury Maksimov, a spokesperson for Scientology in Russia puts it “the materials cited are distributed all over the world“. The texts written by L. Ron Hubbard form a core of beliefs that are inseparable from Scientology itself.
Banning them is little more then a token gesture when the church is still able to practice and teach the ideas and policies contained within the texts themselves.
Personally I’m against the banning of information myself. As Australia stares down the barrel of internet censorship I hate the idea that one day a government might be able to censor information, as much as I might disagree with the information itself.
The Russian book ban is further undermined by the readily availability of Scientology books on public peer 2 peer networks as ebooks.
Whether or not this latest book ban is a precursor to Russia banning Scientology itself at this stage is unknown. If the intention of the book ban was to hinder Scientology’s efforts in Russia however it definitely seems that more will need to be done before any real difference is made.
April 23rd, 2010 at 12:00 pm Jeanne B(Quote)
Thanks for clocking in on the “ban” actually being censorship. That is exactly what it is.
Consider one other possibility. Maybe the negativism you’re heard about Scientology is also an attempt at censorship. All you have to do is skew the interpretation of fairly ordinary practices to get people up in arms who can’t stand to learn anything that could challenge their fixed ideas or their vested interests.
Then once “everybody knows” some falsehood you can use popular opinion to deny those in that group any rights. It’s been done before, many times. What was it the Jews were “known” to do in Hitler’s Europe? Drink baby blood or something like that? I heard the Christians did that too in Rome.
April 24th, 2010 at 3:52 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
Gday Jeanne thanks for the feedback.
I think the problem with this line of thinking is that no matter how skewed or allegedly ficticious the negativism is, people are always free to do their own research. With all material available to them the onus is on the researcher to draw their own conclusions.
Any attempt to silence critics of anything is censorship in itself.