Latest on Besier

by Jerry Bergman 2 Replies latest jw friends

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  Jerry Bergman

  Note: I have received what purports to be Professor Gerhard Besier's speech that he delivered at the opening of the Scientology's cult's "Human Rights" office in Brussels, Belgium on September 17. See, also my response to Scientology's "Proclamation on Religion, Human Rights and Society." http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50grand/writings/armstrong-ltr-2003-09-28-brussels.html If this speech was written by Besier, it is shocking and disgusting in the ignorance or complicity it exhibits. Since some of the language appears to be Scientology's own phraseology, it may very well have been written by the cult, and given to Besier as a dupe or stooge just to read. What a load of lies! What a betrayal of the real oppressed and harassed minority, the victims of the criminal Scientology cult's hateful "suppressive person doctrine." If Besier really wrote and spoke this, he is a willful scoundrel. If he didn't write it, but only mouthed it for his Scientology cult writers, with or without pay, he is only a stupid scoundrel. So, if anyone can confirm that this is indeed the speech he delivered at the opening of the cult's "new and very impressive office," I would be very grateful. I would not want to misidentify this man as a scoundrel if these are not the words he spoke. Gerry Armstrong
  	PROFESSOR GERHARD BESIER DRESDEN TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY It gives me considerable pleasure to speak here today on the occasion of the opening of a new and very impressive office for the Church of Scientology International. There is a battle waging for freedom of belief and worship. It is occurring in Germany and across Europe, where the gap between the legally-guaranteed freedom of belief and the day-to-day realities of religious discrimination often collide. The issue comes down to this: Is Germany -- indeed all of Europe -- to be a society where the rights of all faiths are truly respected? The constitutions of individual nations say yes. European law says yes. They all include, as cornerstones, the right to freedom of belief. Yet in practice, members of religious minorities experience discrimination and harassment. Germany is not the only place this happens. It is occurring in enlightened countries all over Europe. And lest members of any traditional faiths present today think I am excluding you, I am not. In European countries where your faiths are in the minority, you, too, could experience similar treatment. The message of the need for tolerance and pluralism applies to you, too. Making circumstances worse is the lack of a universally accepted definition of religion, broad enough to encompass all faiths. Today, a growing community of scholars such as from Oxford and Paris II Universities recognize that the evidence is clear: new religious movements must be accepted as an important part of our spiritual landscape -- and that the narrow definitions of yesteryear must give way to the religious pluralism shaping the Europe of tomorrow. Therefore I take real pleasure in being able to study this definitional problem from the perspective of the Scientology religion, along with several of my colleagues. Of all the new religious movements in Germany, Scientology is by far the most visible and has stood tall against many attacks. The battle is not yet over. But so far, the Church of Scientology has won some notable and precedent-setting legal victories in the courts. Time and again the courts have declared that Scientology is a religious community protected by the German Constitution. The Federal Supreme Labor Court has ruled that the staff members of Scientology churches are motivated by an idealistic commitment and not monetary gain. And this year the courts compelled the German Federal Finance Ministry to recognize that the mother church, Church of Scientology International, is a charitable tax-exempt religious organization. The tide of the battle for religious freedom in Germany is turning. The Church of Scientology stands in the front row of those who fight for the acceptance of religious pluralism. Scientologists don't give up. They are determined. They persist. They show courage in the face of obstacles. I am convinced, only a sincere belief in their religion can produce this level of commitment and dedication. And that is why the Church of Scientology leads a fight for tolerance that will benefit everyone. And their example gives hope to others. Thank you very much.
  	This document in .pdf format [German]
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  Jerry Bergman

  Scientology Collaborator — Duplicitous or Just a Dupe?

  A friend wrote to me and suggested that in my note about the speech that Professor Gerhard Besier is supposed to have given at the opening of the Scientology cult’s “human rights office” in Brussels on September 17, I might want to change the word “scoundrel” to something that doesn’t imply that he’s an “evil criminal.” http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50grand/cult/besier-speech-2003-09-17.html
  It was recommended that I refer to Dr. Besier instead as a “Scientology collaborator” or a “totalitarian group supporter,” which, of course, he is.

  My big Webster’s Dictionary has a single definition for “scoundrel:” “a bold, selfish man that has very low ethical standards.” The word doesn’t mean “evil criminal,” although certainly evil criminals can be scoundrels, and scoundrels can be evil criminals. But all scoundrels are not evil criminals. In fact, in modern usage, “scoundrel” can be a playful term referring to a prankster or banterer. When I say that Dr. Besier, if he delivered or wrote this speech, is a scoundrel, I am using the meaning provided in my dictionary.

  He may not be a scoundrel, because there’s still a chance that he may not have given this speech in Brussels. Since I webbed the speech last week it now is more certain that he did, because multiple reports have been received that this text was handed out at a Scientology press conference following the “grand opening.” http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50grand/cult/besier-speech-2003-09-17.pdf
  The Scientology cult that Dr. Besier supports is famous, however, for forging documents and for entrapping people and running covert intelligence operations, so it is still remotely possible that this is a forgery created perhaps simply to lure someone into erroneously criticizing him for a scoundrelly act he didn’t commit.

  Because I did not know when I webbed the speech if Dr. Besier had in fact delivered it in Brussels, I included that all important qualifier “IF” in my criticism. I have written to him and asked him IF he gave the speech, but he has so far not responded. Therefore I still do not know with absolute certainty that the speech is his.

  IF it really is his speech, Dr. Besier is certainly bold, because it takes astonishing boldness, indeed impudence, for someone who is not a Scientologist to declare that Scientology is battling for “religious freedom,” and that it “leads a fight for tolerance that will benefit everyone.” As the Gerry Armstrong cases demonstrate, not only is Scientology not battling for “religious freedom,” and most assiduously battling to destroy religious freedom, but also virtually every Scientologist is contracted to destroy religious freedom.

  IF the speech is Dr. Besier’s, his boldness approaches shamelessness because of his professional relationship to the Hannah Arendt Institute for the Research of Totalitarianism at the Dresden Technical University. If a Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, for example, gave a speech in which he portrayed the Nazis as fighters for religious tolerance, that speech and that director would not be that much more shameless.

  Scientology’s intolerance and hatred for the class of citizens whom the cult labels “SPs,” is just as opprobrious as the Nazis’ intolerance and hatred for the Jews. Scientology is just as totalitarian in philosophy, policy and practice as the Nazi party. Thankfully, the Scientology cult has not come into political power as the Nazis tragically did. It is extremely bold of Dr. Besier to lend his support and academic position and reputation to the Scientologists as they pursue that kind of power.

  The following policy was issued by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard in 1960, and continues to be the organization’s policy, on which its personnel continue to be trained and drilled:

  “The goal of the department is to bring the government and hostile philosophies or societies into a state of complete compliance with the goals of Scientology. This is done by high level ability to control and in its absence by low level ability to overwhelm. Introvert such agencies. Control such agencies. Scientology is the only game on Earth where everybody wins. There is no overt [crime] in bringing good order." HCOPL 15 August 1960 “Department of Government Affairs.” See, also Scientology’s intelligence officer checksheet. http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50grand/cult/osa-int-ed-508r.html

  The speech, IF it is Dr. Besier’s, manifests considerable selfishness because of the omission of any mention of “suppressive persons,” or “SPs,” the class of Homo sapiens or wogs®, against whom the Scientology organization really does perpetrate the anti-human rights actions Dr. Besier erroneously implies are being perpetrated against the Scientologists. How selfish to express no words or empathy for the victims of the persecutors he praises as religious freedom fighters. The opening of Scientology’s “human rights office” was a perfect opportunity to say something on behalf of a truly suppressed minority, the SPs, and he said, IF he said what it’s said he said, nothing!

  Scientology, of course, is organized by policies that make the cult selfish in the extreme. It is highly money-motivated, extorts labor and huge sums with threats, scams massive amounts with demonstrably false promises, terrorizes its perceived competitors, tries to crush anyone who distributes its “scriptures,” and seeks an absolute monopoly for its brand of “religion.” Dr. Besier’s speech, IF it is his, supports this consummately selfish cult by misidentifying its selfishness as a fight for tolerance, and consequently mispaints his own motivation for his support as philanthropic.

  As an “academic,” and especially as a representative of the Hannah Arendt Institute, Dr. Besier must hold to, and be held to, a higher ethical standard than a non-academic who does not represent such an institution. IF he delivered this speech, and if in his “research” he simply missed the fact that Scientology is a notorious abuser of human rights, then Dr. Besier demonstrates a very low level of academic ethics. IF he delivered the speech, and was aware of the cult’s human rights abuse and intolerance of counter or other views, then he displayed an abysmal level of ethics. IF Dr. Besier delivered the speech that is being ascribed to him, and if he were paid for it, or for his presence at the grand opening of the Scientology’s “human rights office,” the ethics of his “research” and his overlooking of the cult’s actual nature, intentions and practices make much more sense.

  It may be that Dr. Besier, IF he wrote that speech, does not grasp what it is like to be declared an “SP” by Scientology and made a target of its infamous and widely condemned “fair game” policy. See, e.g., http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50grand/cult/sp/pl-penalties-for-lower-conds.html

  Perhaps he has never heard from one of the cult’s victims, whose human rights the Scientologists have tried to suppress and destroy using the courts and through extra-judicial assaults, threats and other criminal acts. This then is a wonderful opportunity for Dr. Besier to hear from one such Scientology target and victim, and to undertake a study of the cult’s “suppressive person doctrine” in his research. Scientology’s SPs are a suppressed minority with a great need for a voice like his to speak in their defense, and for their rights and freedoms.

  Although Dr. Besier’s speech, IF he gave it in Brussels, puts him in the unpleasant land of scoundreldom, it is extremely easy for him to escape that state. He need only speak out against Scientology’s abuses and its SP doctrine, and speak up for the SPs. It may very possibly happen that in doing so he would himself be targeted as an SP and fair gamed by the totalitarian cult he had been supporting, and his career, family, relationships and life threatened, or even ruined. But being fair game is surely a better rap than being a scoundrel.

  It might be helpful to Dr. Besier to read this college senior thesis entitled "Scientology and Totalitarianism" that uses Hannah Arendt’s writings for comparing Scientology to Nazism and Stalinism, which is webbed on Operation Clambake. http://www.xenu.net/archive/thesis/index.html In fact, it might be helpful for Dr. Besier to read everything at Operation Clambake. www.xenu.net Perhaps it would help to read about my own almost twenty-two years of experiences as an SP and fair game. http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50grand/introduction.html

  It might also be helpful to Dr. Besier to consider Dr. Arendt’s messages about movements like Scientology, their front organizations, like Scientology’s “human rights office,” and their supporters, like himself. For example, from her Origins of Totalitarianism:

  The world at large, on the other side, usually gets its first glimpse of a totalitarian movement through its front organizations. The sympathizers, who are to all appearances still innocuous fellow-citizens in a nontotalitarian society, can hardly be called single-minded fanatics; through them, the movements make their fantastic lies more generally acceptable, can spread their propaganda in milder, more respectable forms, until the whole atmosphere is poisoned with totalitarian elements which are hardly recognizable as such but appear to be normal political reactions or opinions.

  The fellow-traveler organizations surround the totalitarian movements with a mist of normality and respectability that fools the membership about the true character of the outside world as much as it does the outside world about the true character of the movement. The front organization functions both ways: as the facade of the totalitarian movement to the nontotalitarian world, and as the facade of this world to the inner hierarchy of the movement.

  Gerry Armstrong
  c/o Dialog Zentrum Berlin
  Heimat 27
  D-14165 Berlin-Zehlendorf
  Germany
  Tel: +49 (0) 30-8472-3958
  Fax: +49 (0) 1212-5-205-27-015
  [email protected]
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  mizpah

  JB:

  Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Scientology is one of the scariest cults around. It is far worse than the Watchtower Society. If reports are to be believed, it has used threats, harrassment and violence to discourage former members in their opposition. Like the Society, it maintains a battery of lawyers who initiate countersuits to any litigation. In this way, it browbeats and outspends the few voices that have been raised against it.

  It's ironic that such a intolerant "religious" organization should cry "foul" when it is restricted in other countries because of its quesionable status. If freedom of religion is a right as it demands, then let it begin in the Church of Scientology itselfl!