Correspondents’Reports
REPORT FROM France
Guillaume Garih
Femen, a movement born in the Ukraine
and now headquartered in Paris, France,
has gained worldwide attention through
daring acts of “sextremism.”The group
promotes feminism and atheism
through protests in the streets or by
inviting itself to various events where
media is present. The sexual component
of sextremism consists of women baring
their chests, wearing nothing but bold
messages (figuratively and literally), such
as “no god in my vagina.” According to
Femen’s website, the “[s]exist style of the
actions is a way to destruct the
patriarchal understanding of what is the
destination of female sexuality to the
benefit of the great revolutionary
mission.”
Georges Fenech, the French deputy and
former president of Miviludes (the
Interministerial Mission for Monitoring
and Combatting Cultic Movements) has
asked for the dissolution of Femen,
claiming it resorts to cultic methods. His
claim is bolstered by the widely
publicized testimony of a former
member of Femen, who stated that
repetition of dogmas, dissolution of
individual identity for the benefit of the
group’s ideals, repression of dissidence,
and making oneself available at all times
to the group are some of the disquieting
organizational components of Femen. In
response, Femen portrays its martial and
hierarchical structure as necessary to
carry out its complex operations. Anna
Hutsol, the founder of Femen, is
presently claiming refuge in Switzerland.
The guru Gabriel Loison has been found
guilty of rape and “abuse of weakness,” a
French law tailored to criminalize cultic
practices. The victim in the case was a
minor at the time of the crime. Loison’s
“university of nature, ecology, and
relationships” organized seminars in
France, Spain, Morocco, and Costa Rica.
Those seminars cost from 1,600 to
10,000 euros per person and included
orgies and tantric sessions. For Loison,
the imposition of a 10-year jail sentence
ends a streak of “close encounters” with
the judiciary system. Loison had already
been charged but not convicted for the
unintentional killing of two members of
his group during seminars in 1988 and
1989, and for another charge of rape in
1984. Amongst the prosecution’s
witnesses, Julie Baschet, former
companion of Loison, was also tried as
his accomplice as the result of her
involvement in the rapes and sexual
assaults. Olivier Morice, Baschet’s lawyer,
convinced the court that his client was
as much a victim as a perpetrator, and
Baschet was ultimately found innocent.
REPORT FROM Germany and
Austria
Friedrich Griess
Germany
As previously reported, authorities have
seized children from the Twelve Tribes
group and delivered them to foster
parents because of evidence that the
children were systematically flogged,
which is a crime in Germany. However,
some children have been returned to
their parents because they were either
too young or too old to be endangered
by this treatment. The investigations,
including one against the reporter from
RTL [television station] who delivered
evidence by secretly taken videos, have
been partially discontinued. The family
courts will be busy with the case for
several more months. A private school
the Twelve Tribes group operated has
been closed, and the parents have
begun suing the authorities. The feelings
of the public about the situation are
mixed.
A small group known as the New Group
of World Servants, which consists of a
guru and his mate, and a couple with
three children who are totally subject to
the commands of the guru, live in
Bavaria. The guru’s mate had three
teenage children, one of whom suffered
from a metabolic disease
(mucoviscidosis) and could not eat
without receiving the appropriate
medicine, which the guru denied.
Eventually, the three siblings escaped,
which saved the life of the sick one. Now
the guru and his mate are being sued for
child maltreatment.
The Service for the Protection of the
Constitution of the state of
Nordrhein-Westfalen has reported that
Scientology is making extreme efforts to
influence politics by “intensive lobbying,”
especially in Berlin and the state capitols.
The state organization has issued a
warning calling for a reduction in these
activities. At the same time, Scientology
in Berlin seems to have serious economic
problems: Berlin’s state-funded
broadcasting system reports that “Even
the scribbling paper is rationed.”
The very active consulting office of
Sekten-Info Nordrhein-Westfalen, a
support group for those affected by new
religious and ideological communities
and groups located in Essen, has
delivered a comprehensive activity
report for 2013. According to the report,
the organization handled 627
informational inquiries and 458
consulting cases during the year, and its
main workload focused on
fundamentalist groups and esotericism.
Austria
In a press release, Scientology Austria,
through its Citizens Commission on
Human Rights (CCHR) watchdog group,
which investigates and exposes
psychiatric violations of human rights,
claims that the questionable influence of
psychiatry is responsible for a
dramatically increasing suicide rate in
the US army. According to the release,
the new CCHR documentary, The
Hidden Enemy: Inside Psychiatry’s Covert
Agenda, shows that “all evidence [for the
increase in military suicides] points in
one direction: the soaring rates of
psychiatric drug prescribing since 2003.”
Increasingly, institutions until now
considered to be reputable, such as the
Technical Museum in Vienna and the
Austrian Chamber of Commerce, are
providing a platform and giving a seal of
quality to questionable esoteric
practices and groups such as astrology
or the Energethiker Esoteric Shop.
Promotion of such events as the recent
Chamber of Commerce occasion for
astrologers at the Technical Museum of
the Institute for Astrophysics, University
of Vienna, is upsetting scientists,
including astrophysicists and
astronomers.
The private consulting office of
Gesellschaft gegen Sekten-und
24 ICSA TODAY
REPORT FROM France
Guillaume Garih
Femen, a movement born in the Ukraine
and now headquartered in Paris, France,
has gained worldwide attention through
daring acts of “sextremism.”The group
promotes feminism and atheism
through protests in the streets or by
inviting itself to various events where
media is present. The sexual component
of sextremism consists of women baring
their chests, wearing nothing but bold
messages (figuratively and literally), such
as “no god in my vagina.” According to
Femen’s website, the “[s]exist style of the
actions is a way to destruct the
patriarchal understanding of what is the
destination of female sexuality to the
benefit of the great revolutionary
mission.”
Georges Fenech, the French deputy and
former president of Miviludes (the
Interministerial Mission for Monitoring
and Combatting Cultic Movements) has
asked for the dissolution of Femen,
claiming it resorts to cultic methods. His
claim is bolstered by the widely
publicized testimony of a former
member of Femen, who stated that
repetition of dogmas, dissolution of
individual identity for the benefit of the
group’s ideals, repression of dissidence,
and making oneself available at all times
to the group are some of the disquieting
organizational components of Femen. In
response, Femen portrays its martial and
hierarchical structure as necessary to
carry out its complex operations. Anna
Hutsol, the founder of Femen, is
presently claiming refuge in Switzerland.
The guru Gabriel Loison has been found
guilty of rape and “abuse of weakness,” a
French law tailored to criminalize cultic
practices. The victim in the case was a
minor at the time of the crime. Loison’s
“university of nature, ecology, and
relationships” organized seminars in
France, Spain, Morocco, and Costa Rica.
Those seminars cost from 1,600 to
10,000 euros per person and included
orgies and tantric sessions. For Loison,
the imposition of a 10-year jail sentence
ends a streak of “close encounters” with
the judiciary system. Loison had already
been charged but not convicted for the
unintentional killing of two members of
his group during seminars in 1988 and
1989, and for another charge of rape in
1984. Amongst the prosecution’s
witnesses, Julie Baschet, former
companion of Loison, was also tried as
his accomplice as the result of her
involvement in the rapes and sexual
assaults. Olivier Morice, Baschet’s lawyer,
convinced the court that his client was
as much a victim as a perpetrator, and
Baschet was ultimately found innocent.
REPORT FROM Germany and
Austria
Friedrich Griess
Germany
As previously reported, authorities have
seized children from the Twelve Tribes
group and delivered them to foster
parents because of evidence that the
children were systematically flogged,
which is a crime in Germany. However,
some children have been returned to
their parents because they were either
too young or too old to be endangered
by this treatment. The investigations,
including one against the reporter from
RTL [television station] who delivered
evidence by secretly taken videos, have
been partially discontinued. The family
courts will be busy with the case for
several more months. A private school
the Twelve Tribes group operated has
been closed, and the parents have
begun suing the authorities. The feelings
of the public about the situation are
mixed.
A small group known as the New Group
of World Servants, which consists of a
guru and his mate, and a couple with
three children who are totally subject to
the commands of the guru, live in
Bavaria. The guru’s mate had three
teenage children, one of whom suffered
from a metabolic disease
(mucoviscidosis) and could not eat
without receiving the appropriate
medicine, which the guru denied.
Eventually, the three siblings escaped,
which saved the life of the sick one. Now
the guru and his mate are being sued for
child maltreatment.
The Service for the Protection of the
Constitution of the state of
Nordrhein-Westfalen has reported that
Scientology is making extreme efforts to
influence politics by “intensive lobbying,”
especially in Berlin and the state capitols.
The state organization has issued a
warning calling for a reduction in these
activities. At the same time, Scientology
in Berlin seems to have serious economic
problems: Berlin’s state-funded
broadcasting system reports that “Even
the scribbling paper is rationed.”
The very active consulting office of
Sekten-Info Nordrhein-Westfalen, a
support group for those affected by new
religious and ideological communities
and groups located in Essen, has
delivered a comprehensive activity
report for 2013. According to the report,
the organization handled 627
informational inquiries and 458
consulting cases during the year, and its
main workload focused on
fundamentalist groups and esotericism.
Austria
In a press release, Scientology Austria,
through its Citizens Commission on
Human Rights (CCHR) watchdog group,
which investigates and exposes
psychiatric violations of human rights,
claims that the questionable influence of
psychiatry is responsible for a
dramatically increasing suicide rate in
the US army. According to the release,
the new CCHR documentary, The
Hidden Enemy: Inside Psychiatry’s Covert
Agenda, shows that “all evidence [for the
increase in military suicides] points in
one direction: the soaring rates of
psychiatric drug prescribing since 2003.”
Increasingly, institutions until now
considered to be reputable, such as the
Technical Museum in Vienna and the
Austrian Chamber of Commerce, are
providing a platform and giving a seal of
quality to questionable esoteric
practices and groups such as astrology
or the Energethiker Esoteric Shop.
Promotion of such events as the recent
Chamber of Commerce occasion for
astrologers at the Technical Museum of
the Institute for Astrophysics, University
of Vienna, is upsetting scientists,
including astrophysicists and
astronomers.
The private consulting office of
Gesellschaft gegen Sekten-und
24 ICSA TODAY
