Get Rael

Rael's terrifying "Angels"

I don't know what your opinion on the Raelians is (personally, I find them highly entertaining) but reasonable people can agree they have the right to practice their beliefs, right?

Ah, who are we kidding?

"Brigitte McCann spent nine months undercover as a member of the Raelian sect in 2003, the resulting articles caused a stir in Quebec and won her the province's top journalism prize. Her Journal de Montreal reports revealed a darker side of a group generally dismissed as UFO-believing clowns: Its leader believes he has been targeted for assassination by the CIA, he demands generous contributions from his 55,000 followers and his entourage includes "angels" prepared to die to protect him."

First off, Rael's suspicions are probably not entirely unfounded. Second, not only do churches and mosques and synagogues demand generous contributions from their own followers, they also demand them from the taxpayers, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars a year in tax breaks and faith-based kickbacks (which Obama is expanding). Third, being "prepared to die to protect" a religious leader is usually a positive thing in media-approved religions.

No, Rael's crime is the worst imaginable in this day and age- he's the leader of a minority religious sect. We see much, much worse crimes committed by monotheistic sects that usually never make the national media in the US or Canada.


But at least one judge believes in equal protection under the law:

But in a decision that one lawyer says further restricts the media's freedom in Quebec, a judge has ruled that the Journal's "clandestine" investigation went too far. He has ordered its parent company, Sun Media Corp., to pay $9,000 in damages to two Raelians who sued for invasion of privacy.

In his decision the judge stated:

"If the activities of a group or organization are legal and of a private nature, what can justify the use of so-called clandestine investigation methods in the name of the public right to information?" Judge Grenier asked.

That judge must be getting ready to retire or something. Look at how the neoconservative National Post spins the Raelian's reaction to the verdict:

The publicity-hungry Raelians celebrated the decision with a news release yesterday calling it "a great victory for human rights and freedoms in Quebec."

Can you imagine an established religious group ever being dismissed as "publicity hungry?"

Don't get me wrong- I'm not holding a brief for the Raelians. I don't really care for those kinds of sects, to be honest. No, the point here is that the media has a ferocious double-standard when it comes to minority belief systems - or dissenting ideas themselves.

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