Not to hijack but bump with this news from France Riot-torn Paris suburbs 'targeted by sects'
Guardian Unlimited, UK - 4 hours ago
... "Members of the Church of Scientology, the New Acropole or the Jehovah's Witnesses are regularly deployed on the ground in France as elsewhere," it added. ... Riot-torn Paris suburbs 'targeted by sects' Kim Willsher in Paris
Saturday April 29, 2006 Sect-like groups are profiting from the misery in riot-stricken French suburbs to attract new recruits under the guise of offering humanitarian aid, warns an official report. Organisations including the Church of Scientology, labelled a cult in France, are targeting vulnerable residents in the country's poor, high immigration suburbs, it claims. France's official sects watchdog, the Interministerial Mission in the Fight Against Cults (Miviludes), said the situation called for "extreme vigilance". It said the activities of sect-like groups had increased in three main areas: children, alternative medicine and humanitarian aid. "The presence in French suburbs following the disturbances of the autumn of 2005 of certain sect-like organisations proclaiming loud and clear the merits of their humanitarian action for the disadvantaged is worrying," it declared, "especially when one notices similarities in the remarks of these organisations and the way the events in question were treated by certain international media." These organisations were increasingly using aid as a means of gaining respectability and a cover for spreading their message, preying on people who were often in a state of distress, it wrote. It singled out the Church of Scientology, whose members include actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta, and described as "pure propaganda" a statement in which the group took credit for calming one of the riot-hit suburbs last November. After claiming to have been in the suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois - badly hit by last autumn's riots - for a fortnight members of the Church of Scientology wrote that its return to normal quicker than other areas was linked to the presence of its volunteers, said the report. "Members of the Church of Scientology, the New Acropole or the Jehovah's Witnesses are regularly deployed on the ground in France as elsewhere," it added. Presenting the report, Miviludes' secretary, Jean-Michel Roulet, said: "During the last year the growth of sects in France has continued unabated. Children are at the heart of the campaign for sect leaders because they are malleable and represent the potential development of the group." In a television interview he added that humanitarian aid was "profitable in terms of image and recruitment because when somebody comes to help you, the polite response is to listen to what they say." The watchdog listed a wide range of alternative therapies including crystal therapy, iridology (diagnosis though examination of the iris) and shamanism among those practised by sects and said they had one thing in common: no scientific basis. In 2005 there were 200 methods of alternative medicine recorded by the French authorities, compared with 80 in 2001. "Whether it's a case of healing sects ... or guru practitioners who create their own methods or are franchised by others who have founded doctrines, the choice is very large, and is therefore able to attract all kinds of need," said Mr Roulet. Six years ago the French parliament adopted Europe's toughest anti-sect laws, creating a new crime of "mental manipulation", punishable by a fine of £50,000 and five years' imprisonment.
The best successfull Jw's lobbyist you've ever known
by chasson 56 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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DannyHaszard
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chasson
Narkissos:Garay has an interesting career as an attorney and a lobbyist for the WT, but the first article you linked to (and perhaps wrote) is not positive that he is a JW. Did you come across conclusive evidence that he is?
It is implicit, but i have no definite evidence, but how could you have his carreer and not be a JW ?
He has never answer this recurrent question himself even if some have asked publicly ask him
How could you be the secretary of a JW association which the president is the Bethel's doctor and not be a JW. In contrary to Aidafric, the AMS has not a seperate history with the Bethel, it has since the beginning some bethelite in his staff, and has been presented as an association of JW's doctor and lawyer, so how could we think that one of the three director of it, could not be a JW ?
The first Seven years of the carreer of Garay are only in connection with JW. As you could note his cabinet was 400 meters from the french's Bethel. All his "specialization" are in connection with the judicial's history of the french's jw.
Bye
Charles -
Narkissos
Here's the abstract of one 2002 article by Garay in a (Catholic) Canonical Law review on the issue of secrecy among JWs (think "child abuse"):
http://www.droitcanon.com/Resumes/resumes2002_religion.html#anglais
The fact that the WT cancelled Garay's participation to the CESNUR conference in 1998 suggests he is regarded as an official representative, though not necessarily a member:
http://www.kelebekler.com/cesnur/txt/geo2.htm
Thus far I have found only the "antisectes" website (which seems to be focusing on Scientology) asserting that Garay is a JW.
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Narkissos
Googling for the AMS I came across Charles' link which is worth checking (search for AMS):
Here is the relevant excerpt:
ii.Furthermore, the Secretary General considered it appropriate to postpone examining the files of seven NGOs seeking consultative status for a period of two years.
They are as follows:
- European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (EALDH);
- Association internationale des Inventeurs, Créateurs et Designers (AIDIDC);
- Association médico-scientifique d'Information et d'Assistance du Malade (AMS);
- Centre de recherche et d'expression des Musiques médiévales (TROBAR);
- International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO);
- Union des Centres d'Etudes Transpyrénéens (UCET);
- World Union for Peace and the Fundamental Human Rights and the Rights of People (UNIPAX).
Although these NGOs do not fully meet the requirements for consultative status at the present time, they nevertheless appear to be in a position to contribute to certain Council of Europe activities. Consequently, these NGOs have been invited to establish initial contacts with the operational directorates concerned on an ad hoc, pragmatic basis. Arrangements for possible fruitful future co-operation with these NGOs might be determined, in years to come, on the basis of the results of those contacts.
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jwfacts
Hi Narkissos,
I forgot we have our own French translator on the site. -
chasson
Narkissos,
To close the matter concerning his membership or not, we could perhaps conclude that we can definetily prove that he is an active and perhaps the best lobbyist for the Watchtower, that he has devoted himself since the beginning of his career to JW, and at the beginning only to JW, that he was so close to JW that he is member and director of one of an association very closed to the French's Bethel and that curiously this association has tried to become an counsultative's NGO before the European Commission, that he has personnally take position against the french's government policy concerning cult and has personnally implication concerning transfusion's alternative, but even with all this evidence, we have no definite proof, for example a clear assertion, that he is a JW.
I think the matter is not here, for example you can read in french a medical booklet directed to Swiss Nurses. It is allegedly write by the nurse swiss association, in fact, the booklet say clearly that it is inspired from material of HLC
http://www.sbk-asi.ch/archiv/1999/11_1999/S66_70-11_1999.pdf
What it is dangerous is that nurse are incited to be the attorney of the patient against the doctor, that they must called HLC when in emergency there are what they could considerate as young and inexperimented doctors. Concerning Big News of LouderBack, it is falsely said in this brochure that you can avoid transfusion in ALL medical situation and when you are in front of minor you must obey to the parent.
This booklet is classified in some medical's database as interesting i have found it here:
http://www.bdsp.tm.fr/FullText/Show.asp?Ref=198875
Bye
Charles
Bye
Charles -
EAGLE-1
Call in the Jackel
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chasson
If you want an assertion that AMS member are all JW look at: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/gamaliel21/17%20CONFERENCES%202.htm Bye Charles
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valkyrie
Chasson wrote:Translate this.
http://www.tj-encyclopedie.org/Alain_GarayThis is a complete translation of that article (by Valkyrie) - notes and references excepted:
ALAIN GARAY- French lawyer at the Court of Paris. An associate member of the Law and Religions Team of LIDEMS [Le Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Droit et Mutations Sociales = The Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Law and Social Changes], he is also a Lay Master teacher of Cult Law [or, the Law and Non-Mainstream Religions] at the His activity as a lawyer is documented from 1988, when in a direct relationship with the French Bethel, through the AMS [l’Association Médico-Scientifique d’information et d’assistance du malade = the Medical-Scientific Association of Information and Assistance to the Ill] connection (he is the secretary of that association), he published a supplementary brochure in the bulletins of the OMS [Organization Mondiale de Santé = World Health Organisation] on the theme “Saving lives without violating consciences.” In 1990, still edited by the same association and directed by ’s medical counsel, he and Sabine Besson published “The Refusal of Blood Transfusions: Legal Aspects.” He remains in a close relationship with the international network of alternatives to transfusion, which was set up by the former French-Bethelites who founded AMS, and who have since regrouped within the LMS-Group and the Nata association – as is evidenced by the fact that the LMS-group is regularly entrusted to organise conferences of the associations, over which Alain Garay presides. His work as a lawyer has led him to defend Jehovah’s Witnesses in matters relating to: the refusal of young Jehovah’s Witnesses to accept either military service or alternative service for conscientious objectors before 1995; child custody (1993); the financial affairs of Jehovah’s Witnesses in France (the taxation of tangible gifts); and their stances in regard to blood transfusions, especially before the European Commission and the Bulgarian blood issue (1998). Besides his work as an attorney, he actively takes a personal interest in the controversies raised by these issues. For example: - He has written a book denouncing the anti-sect movement in . - He participates in discussion groups [questioned as a panel member] on the subject of Jehovah’s Witnesses even when he the subject is not within his brief; for example, on the subject of secrecy in religions in 2002, he developed the them of “secrecy in the organisation of Jehovah’s Witnesses.” More recently, on the subject of marriage in religions (2006), he addressed the question in the context of Jehovah’s Witnesses. He has also participated in a colloquium with religious sociologists concerning Jehovah’s Witnesses. It is obvious, therefore, that the publication of his books and articles close follow the current judicial activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Until recently, it was difficult to find Master [Note: this is an honorific denoting his law degree and practice] Garay associated with any current clients besides Jehovah’s Witnesses. The strategy of lobbying that was put into place by Alain Garay can be followed over the years. It is one of a simple lawyer among other Jehovah’s Witnesses, acting through pseudo-official bodies of the religion – such as the AMS from 1988 to 1993. He takes the initiative in the Latin-American world to be at the creation of medical law associations that regularly deal with the subject of Jehovah’s Witnesses and transfusions. In ever-increasing concentric circles, his initiative moves from its genesis in Costa Rica to embrace, first, all of Latin America, then Spain (as of 1996). In conjunction with this, he has manifested notably increased activity against anti-sect movements in the years 1998 to 2000. This has resulted in his contributions at Cesnur [Centre d'études sur les nouvelles religions = the Center for Studies on New Religions], the CSCE [the Commission on Security and Cooperation in ], and the OSCE; his activities have also led to his rubbing shoulders with European authorities in order to defend [/represent] Jehovah’s Witnesses. Following his success with the endeavour in , as of 2000 he participates in the creation of French “national” associations for patients’ rights; these associations continue to attract interest in the medical and legal domains. Having good introductions [recommendations], he will succeed in shaping the training of new lower-court magistrates and journalists in matters concerning the right of non-mainstream religionsby making the University of Aix-Marseille his headquarters for the studies leading to the undergraduate diploma [degree] of Law of Religions and of Religious Associations. So, in 2006 Alain Garay is an inescapable force: from a global point of view in the area of patient law and transfusions (as Vice-president of the worldwide association or transcontinental network of the LMS-Group); from European and global points of view in the matter of freedom of worship for religious minorities (for example, as an expert to the OSCE for example, and by reason of his participation in CESNUR at the CSCE); and nationally [in France] in the matter of the financial affairs of religious associations (for example, the taxation of tangible gifts to the association of Jehovah’s Witnesses), religious law (he is ‘on-call’ in case of a judicial inquiry into the role of secrecy amongst Jehovah’s Witnesses in, for example, the matter of pedophiles), medical law (for example, as brought by Patrick Pelloux and the ANDP [ Association Nationale des droits du Patient = National Association for the Rights of the Patient] into the area of medical emergencies). He is active in the education and training of future French elites in connection with the law of worship. Regularly accused by the anti-sect movements of being a Jehovah’s Witness himself, Garay has never expressed himself on the subject; however, the beginning of his career leaves little doubt as to his membership in the organisation.
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chasson
Thanks a lot, Walkyrie !!!
Bye
Charles