THE SCIENTOLOGY CENTRE which is to open in Firhouse, south Dublin, this weekend has been given the seal of approval by a senior member of the Nation of Islam.

Nation of Islam minister Tony Muhammad attended a launch in London heralding the opening of the new centre in Dublin. At the event, he posed for photographs with senior Scientologist Jim Mathers.

In a photo posted on Jim Mathers’ Instagram account, the two men are holding a green-covered copy of the Dianetics book, authored by Scientology’s controversial founder L Ron Hubbard, and considered one of the primary texts of Scientology. They are also standing in front of a green sign which reads: Launching Scientology in Ireland.

The Nation of Islam (NOI) has been in operation for over 80 years. It is a group which promotes black nationalism in the name of Islam. It is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group due to the “deeply racist, anti-Semitic and anti-gay rhetoric of its leaders”, according to the SPLC.

The Nation of Islam has been outspoken against gay people as well as people of the Jewish faith.

In one annual address in 2006, the then Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan said:

It’s the wicked Jews, false Jews, that make it a crime for you to preach the word of God, then they call you homophobic.

More recently, Farrakhan this year used his keynote address at the Nation of Islam’s annual gathering to support Palestine’s right to land in the Middle East.

He said: “I want to disabuse the Jews today of the false claim that you are the chosen of God — that Israel or Palestine belongs to you.

“I want to disabuse you of that. I want to make it so clear and I’m going to tell you about your future. You that think you have power to frighten and dominate the peoples of the world. I’m here to announce the end of your time.”

Louis Farrakhan during this year's keynote address to thousands of members of the Nation of Islam. Source: NOI.org

You can watch his full speech here.

Earlier this year, a leading member of the Nation of Islam gave a speech claiming that the legalisation of marijuana in some US states was turning black men gay.

Doctor Wesley Muhammad claimed that marijuana “induces homosexuality” in men.

“Your weed is suddenly feminising you,” he said in a speech in January. The group has also been vehemently anti-vaccine.

Vaccines

The Nation of Islam minister Tony Muhammad, who attended this week’s Scientology in Ireland launch, has claimed that some vaccinations were “genetically modified” to attack black and Latino males.

In October 2015, he addressed a crowd of thousands of people in Washington and claimed that he had uncovered a conspiracy.

“It has been brought to our attention that the senior lead scientist for the Center for Disease Control has admitted that the MMR vaccines and many of the vaccine shots have been genetically modified to attack black and Latino boys,” he said.

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“I don’t think you heard me. We are living in a wicked time, where we’re dealing with a spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Concerns have been raised by a number of people about the church of Scientology opening what appears to be a European base in Firhouse.

TheJournal.ie broke the news earlier this year that the centre was to open in Dublin.

And on Saturday, when the centre is to be officially opened here, a number of protesters have said they assemble to voice their concern over the base.

The Scientology movement has said previously that it has not taken a position on vaccines. In 2015, it confirmed that it had allowed a community centre it owns in the US to be used as the venue for a meeting of opponents to proposed legislation that would bring more children into the net of mandatory vaccinations.

At the time, a Scientology spokesperson told the LA Times: “We frequently make the Community Center available to facilitate the open discussion of issues that are important to members of the community. The church does not take a position one way or the other on [the proposed legislation].”

However, the church has been broadly anti-medication, especially for psychological conditions, even though it states that it is open to using “prescribed medical drugs when physically ill”.

In its self-styled Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), the church opposes psychiatry under the various guises, calling it “an industry of death” and it has also released a documentary, with the same name, in recent years.

CCHR’s mission statement reads: “CCHR functions solely as a mental health watchdog, working alongside many medical professionals including doctors, scientists, nurses and those few psychiatrists who have taken a stance against the biological/drug model of “disease” that is continually promoted by the psychiatric/pharmaceutical industry as a way to sell drugs.

“It is a nonpolitical, nonreligious, nonprofit organisation dedicated solely to eradicating mental health abuse and enacting patient and consumer protections. CCHR’s Board of Advisers, called Commissioners, include doctors, scientists, psychologists, lawyers, legislators, educators, business professionals, artists and civil and human rights representatives.”

Scientology Ireland has been contacted for comment.