EVEN for a religion started by a science fiction writer, the
allegations levelled against the Church of Scientology in federal
parliament this week sound stranger than fiction.
Blackmail, cover-ups of child abuse, labour camps, embezzlement and coerced abortions are spelled out among the 53 pages of allegations by seven former Scientologists - some of whom had climbed high in the church hierarchy - tabled in the Senate.
In what the church has decried as "an outrageous abuse of parliamentary privilege", independent senator Nick Xenophon is demanding a Senate inquiry into what he described in parliament as a "criminal organisation that hides behind its religious beliefs".
"In my view, this is a two-faced organisation," he told the Senate on Tuesday night.
"There is the public face of the organisation founded in 1953 by the late science fiction writer L.Ron Hubbard, which claims to offer guidance and support to its followers, and there is the private face of the organisation, which abuses its followers, viciously targets its critics and seems largely driven by paranoia." MORE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
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