Distribution of Scientology literature has been banned...

...in Russia.

Whether or not that court decision will hold is questionable — a similar decision was made and overturned last year — but the article also links to Russia's Federal List of Extremist Materials.

Google's translation crapped out at #599 (not that I'm complaining — it's an amazing free service!), but what I was able to scan down through was interesting: Lots of religious pamphlets, especially in regards to Islam and Jehovah's Witnesses, as well as a few references to items by and about metal bands.

Comments

[Alysa]

quick correction: The name of the church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Though I'm not surprised if Google translate couldn't handle that. It's a mouthful. :)

[Emily's Reading Room]

I didn't see anything on that list related to the LDS church. Truth be told though, I was scanning the page pretty quickly.

[Bookreviewsandenglishnews.blogspot.com]

I didn't see anything on the Mormons either, but there was plenty on the Jehovah's Witnesses, so that means the Mormons are likely to be banned in some part of the list, too. :)
Actually, the whole thing reminds me of the Cold War times. James Bond, anyone?
(And now I'm humming "I Hope The Russians Love Their Children Too.")

[Leila]

*headdesk*

This is what happens when I write posts first thing in the morning (without eating first) -- my brain goes on the fritz. Thank you, all. I will correct posthaste!

[Bookreviewsandenglishnews.blogspot.com]

Don't worry about it. Lots of folks who aren't particularly into 19th Century American religious organizations mix up The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (the Jehovah's Witnesses) and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons). Both names are freakin' long, after all.
And my guess is that the Russian folks who created this list would be just as happy to ban one group as the other, since religious tolerance doesn't seem to be too high on their list of priorities.

[Out_Of_ The_Dark]

Once you read one of Scientology's books, like Science of Survival, you can then understand why the writings are being banned. Here are a few quotes from that book:

"In any event, any person from 2.0 down on the Tone Scale should not have, in any thinking society, any civil rights of any kind, because by abusing those rights he brings into being arduous and strenuous laws which are oppressive to those who need no such restraints."

- L. Ron Hubbard, SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL, 1989 Ed., p. 145 [The "Tone Scale" is Scientology’s measure of mental and spiritual health.]

"There are only two answers for the handling of people from 2.0 down on the Tone Scale, neither one of which has anything to do with reasoning with them or listening to their justification of their acts. The first is to raise them on the Tone Scale by un-enturbulating some of their theta by any one of the three valid processes. The other is to dispose of them quietly and without sorrow." - L. Ron Hubbard, SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL, p. 170

"The sudden and abrupt deletion of all individuals occupying the lower bands of the Tone Scale from the social order would result in an almost instant rise in the cultural tone and would interrupt the dwindling spiral into which any society may have entered." - L. Ron Hubbard, SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL, p. 170

"A Venezuelan dictator once decided to stop leprosy. He saw that most lepers in his country were also beggars. By the simple expedient of collecting and destroying all the beggars in Venezuela an end was put to leprosy in that country."
- L. Ron Hubbard, SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL, p. 171

"Unfortunately, it is all too often true that suppressors to a creative action must be removed before construction and creation takes place. Any person very high on the Tone Scale may level destruction toward a suppressor."
- L. Ron Hubbard, SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL, p. 159