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9.27.11

Of Rights and Raelians

Glad to see this! I wrote about Abdulluah Hashem and Joseph McGowen's documentary on the Raelians at the time, back in 2005. I'm not particularly a fan of the Raelians. I think "Rael" is just a horny old goat-guru and I don't like their politics and the whole cloning thing is surreal. On the other hand, their beliefs on ETs are harmless and in general, their free love philosophy is benign and harms no one.

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 . . .

Then there's the whole cloning thing. Gawk. Gawd. Jesus Christ on a stick! That's some scary stuff. Creepy too. Juxtapose that with the swastika and you can see how some of us get a little nervous.

Then there's there pro-Palestinian banners on their site. Now we're three for three.

And of course there's Rael himself. Horny old guy with horny intentions. Guys like him are nothing new; spewing higher energy vibrational love rays at all the young impressionable females, and not a few males, just to get in each others pants.

Who knows what, if anything, happened to Rael long ago. It's possible he really did experience what he says he did. Or he could be some sort of sleeper agent in a global mind control game. He could be delusional. His arrogance might have gotten the better of him, and whatever spark of anomalous weirdness happened to him has turned gaudy. Maybe it's a bit of all of that. I don't know, none of us do, and I doubt any of us will.

One thing: there are thousands of people across the globe who like him a lot and are followers.

So, I don't think much of the Raelians. But that's me. They have a right to exist, and do what they will. They're not hurting anyone. Oddly enough, what offends most people about them I find the least offensive. Not many find it bothersome they have a swastika, support terrorists, or promote cloning (and for very weird reasons.) The two things a lot of people find offensive is their sex philosophy, and their aliens are gods/gods are aliens religious doctrine.

Those last two are the least of my worries. Sex; always a good idea. Free love, live and let live. The alien-god angle, nothing new there. I'll buy that.

I wish the Raelians would go away, although if they did, I wouldn't have anyone to poke fun at. (Except for the never ending crop of uber skeptics.) And we kind of need them. Chronic skeptics need them too; they need to point at the Raelians as proof that UFOlogy is not to be taken seriously. Mainstream religion needs the Raelians, to justify their own existence. They're good and moral and rational; the Raelians are too pleased with their sexuality and the god/alien/alien/god thing is blasphemous. It's just all part of the Fortean circus. If the Raelians went away, another group would soon fill the void.

On the orignal Orange Orb (where the "new, improved" blogger ate it) I wrote about Abdullah Hashem, a film maker, who "exposed" the Raelians. I haven't seen the film. But comments Hashem made bothered me as much as the realians. I wrote that Hashmes reasons for misprepreiting himself to the group, filming them unawares, and then resorting to what amounted to blackmail, aren't enough to justify his actions.

Hashem's motives need to be questioned here. In an article I wrote about this in 2005, I quoted Hashem from an interview he gave about his views on the Raelians:

I'm not a religious nut, but according to my beliefs, when people wear shirts that say there is no God, I have to do something."

That's scary. It's scary whenever anyone is so convinced they're right, based on a religious conviction, that their actions are justified, even when their actions are devious. That's very scary.

The Raelians are suing Indiana University and Hashem for Hasehm's tactics.

This is further evidence of Hashem's agenda: {emphasis mine}

Add to the offense Hashem offered to hand over the film footage to the Raelians, if the Raelians would cease all operations in the United States and Egypt and disburse all funds belonging to the Raelian Movement.

That's a very scary statement. I find that a frightening statement. He's offended by the religious views of another, and so feels he has "to do something,"

"We talked to a lot of homosexuals who said they joined because it's the only religion not to have condemned them and they feel more comfortable there," Hashem told the Times.

As I commented then:

It's not clear here if Hashem thinks this is a good thing or a bad thing. I assume he thinks it's a bad thing, given the context. I say it's one of the few positive things about the Raelians. McGowen admitted having a hard time keeping his wits about him due to the seductive atmosphere.

"You have really attractive women who are out of a lot of men's league, and they come up to you and touch you," McGowen said. "I was seduced by a couple of women and got in pretty deep."

The Raelians are always suspect for all kinds of reasons. Groups like the Raelians will always be looked at that way from both the skeptics and the more "rational" UFO and Fortean researchers. That's part of their job; to cause the rest of us to squirm in embarrassment, or act properly affronted.

Hashem and his crew however, that's a different story. Don't let your uncomfortableness with the Realians cause you to ignore the agenda of Abdullah Hashem.

Notes

RelligionNewsblog.com: Religious UFO cult infiltrated

Here's something from a piece I wrote for UFO Digest in 2007 that references Hashem:

. . . filmmaker Abdullah Hashem is one such person. Hashem infiltrated the UFO group the Raelians in order to "expose" them. I'm not a fan of the Raelians for a lot of reasons, including their politics involving Israel. But I'm not "against" them either. Leave them be is my philosophy. But Hashem's justification for going into the Raelians organization under false pretenses is as dangerous as any "cult." Hashem is offended by their idea/belief of god, God, G-d, etc.:

"I'm not a religious nut, but according to my beliefs, when people wear shirts that say there is no God, I have to do something," ~ Hashem told the Mooresville-Decatur Times.

Hashem believes that his beliefs about God are right, and others who don't believe the same way should be "exposed." This is extremely dangerous thinking, and yet, no one that I know of in the UFO community has commented on this. The few that have see no problem with Hashem's "infiltration" because for one thing, the Raelians are an embarrassment to many within the UFO community. Well, they are a bit, but so what? That's always been the case with the UFO crowd, and it always will be. Trickster having some fun. Can't have one without the other. Disingenuous Infiltration

I quoted Hashem as saying "I'm not a religious nut, but according to my beliefs, when people wear shirts that say there is not God, I have to do something."

That sounds like "religious nut" to me -- when someone "feels they have to do something" about the religious beliefs of others, that's "religious nut" territory. Add to that his attempt at blackmail (cease operations and send money) and Hashem's motivations are clear.

The whole thing is very weird, and it gets weirder. There's a blog, last update February of 2008, called Hashemsfims Conspiracy Confess. I think, from the info on the blog, McGowen is the blog owner, and his profile states he is a "freedom fighter" and he likes the films of Mel Gibson. It seems to be about exposing Hashem. I wonder what McGowen thinks these days, in context of the court's ruling?

It was always clear Hashem and McGowen had a clear religious agenda, making their would be exposure of the Raelians nohting more than an attack by religious and political zealots.