Rights and Raelians: Court Rules Filmmakers Lied About Raelians

On Binnall of America, for my Trickster's Realm column:Rights and Raelians. A federal court recently ruled that two film makers intentionally lied in their documentary about the Raelians. I've been following this story for years, since 2005 when they started their campaign against the Raelians. Now, I'm not a particular fan of the Raelians but that is beside the point. UFO Land has ignored this story, mainly because the Raelians are an embarrassment, I suspect. But that fact doesn't change the religious and political fanaticism of Abdullah Hashem and his partner Joseph McGowen and their libel and slander.

All that's beside the point; Hashem's attack on the Raelians wasn't due to altruistic reasons, but a religious attack. He was deeply offended by the Raelians free spirited sexual views and their interpretations of God/god. That's all it was ever about. One religious fanatic's attack. Last week a court ruled in favor of the Raelians:

U.S. Federal Court Rules Filmmakers Lied About Raelians - PR Newswire - sacbee.com

LAS VEGAS, Sept. 23, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A California federal court has found that two vocal critics of the Raelian Movement (www.rael.org) fabricated stories about the organization. The court awarded undisclosed damages to the Raelians, including the return of film footage.

Abdullah Hashem and Joseph McGowen appeared on Fox News and other media outlets in 2005-2006, saying they saw people recruited through sex and that acts of pedophilia took place at a Raelian seminar in 2005.

Raelians have claimed for years that the two men lied about what they reported, and they have now been legally vindicated. On September 15, the federal court issued a final judgment against Hashem, who was also ordered to return all film footage taken at the seminar to the Raelian Movement. A copy of the ruling is available upon request under:

United States District Court for the Eastern District of California: International Raelian Movement v. Hashem (Case No. 2:08-cv-00687-GEB –DAD).

My original blog posts appeared on an old Angelfire blog I had that no longer exists but I did find a draft in my files from 2005:

Raelians Sue

Long time readers of the OrangeOrb know I'm no fan of the Raelians. Their emblem is offensive: a swastika. Oh, not a neo-Nazi white brotherhood kill the Jews and gays and blacks and everyone else un-tall, blond and blue eyed, but still. They've gone through a couple of changes with the design, making it New Agey, all lotus like and mingled with light and love and the ancient meaning of the swastika, but, still . . .

Read the rest at Binnall of America, and do yourself a favor and read the other great columns while you're visting the site.