Press Release by the Author of the Website
The Threatening Letter from CESNUR's Lawyer

 
Expressions of support and solidarity
Mirror and support sites
 
CESNUR claims "victory" against free speech
Introvigne's lawyer does not reply to our repeated requests to publish her legal threats
 
What can I do to stop this censorship?
 

In 1999, this website was closed down after threats by CESNUR director Massimo Introvigne's lawyers. The site today is alive and well again, but here is the record of what happened during those days.  



Press Release by the Authors of the Website 

PRESS RELEASE (*) 
CENSORSHIP: A WEBSITE IN ITALY SUPPRESSED 
CESNUR (the "Centre for the Study of New Religions" run by the patent lawyer Massimo Introvigne, closely connected to the right-wing organisation Alleanza Cattolica) has managed to suppress the only source of critical information on its activities, the website Kelebek (http://www.kelebekler.com). 
On June 14th, 1999, the provider who hosted the pages gave in to threats from Massimo Introvigne's lawyer, who had "warned him to immediately cease any activity of dissemination of the site." The demand for liquidating the site was based on the following reasons: 
1) The site had allegedly infringed Introvigne's rights as an author by publishing a press release issued by CESNUR. 
2) The site had allegedly breached Introvigne's "privacy" by linking to the site (entirely public, of course) of Jacobacci & Perani, the lawyers' office where Introvigne practices. 
3) The site allegedly made "long quotations" from texts written by Introvigne. 
4) The site hosted a historical collection of articles which had appeared - sometimes years before - on Italian and foreign periodicals. The director of CESNUR was perfectly aware of these articles, none of which had ever been the subject of a suit. 
That's all. Introvigne's lawyers were unable to find one single truly offensive remark or one factual mistake in the whole site! 
We would like to add that the lawyer's letter is dated May 31st, whereas the contents of our pages appeared on Internet over nine months before, as appears for example on an official release issued by CESNUR in November 1998. 
Making information on CESNUR available is important for two reasons: 
1) In Italy, CESNUR enjoys public funding by the Regional authorities of Piemonte, so people have the right to know how their money is spent. 
2) In various countries, and especially in Italy, CESNUR presents itself as the only authority on such controversial groups as the transnational Scientology. Media, law makers and law enforcement personnel all have the right to know whom they are dealing with. 
Kelebek used to be the only source in the world for information on CESNUR. Now that censorship and legal harassment have liquidated this space, the only information on CESNUR people have a right to is the information which appears on CESNUR's own official site (http://www.cesnur.org). 
The activities of Introvigne and CESNUR are only one of many issues Kelebek dealt with: closure of this site has also implied the deletion of various articles about the relations between East and West - the symbolism of the Holy Land in various cultures, relations between Islam and the West, and the native peoples of the former Ottoman Empire. 
Kelebek in Turkish means butterfly. And with help from those who believe in freedom of Internet, we intend to go on flying! Thanks to the hospitality of some friends of freedom of thought and expression, we have been able to open our site again. 
Also, a page has been opened with information on censorship, in Italian and English. It hosts this release, the notice by Introvigne's lawyer, comments, initiatives, and will be updated constantly. 
Help us spread the news! Stop censorship! Freedom for Kelebek

June 18th, 1999 
Miguel Martinez 


(*) This text is a PRESS RELEASE, meaning a press release. By press release, we mean a text which can be reproduced in any fashion, including but not only, as a newspaper article, leaflet, sticker, painting, wall calendar, poster, etching, web page, tattoo, bank note, manuscript, musical score, monument or confetti. We shall be especially grateful to anybody who will save us the trouble of translating it into other languages. 



The Threatening Letter from CESNUR's Lawyer 

We always try to provide our readers with complete documentation, so they can also hear opposite views from ours. For this reason, we would greatly like to present the lawyer's letter in full. 
However we have had a taste of the rather peculiar way CESNUR's supporters see "copyright" matters. So today we e-mailed a message to Introvigne's lawyer (with a carbon copy to Introvigne too), expressly asking her permission to publish the entire text of the threatening note. We await her reply. We have of course no interest in making her name known, only the contents of the threat. While we wait for her reply, we can at least sum up her arguments. 
In the letter to the provider, the attorney - who says she represents both CESNUR and Massimo Introvigne - first of all states that the website breached her client's copyright by publishing a press release taken from the CESNUR site. She claims however that this press release was not "technically" such. 
"Technically" or not, it had appeared on a CESNUR website page under the title "Press Releases" (the URL where it had been available for over four months bore the name http://www.cesnur.org/stampa.htm, "stampa" in Italian meaning press). It had the form of a press release, and nobody had every objected before to this definition, as one can see for example from an essay published by a third party under the title "A reply to CESNUR's press release of April 22, 1998."  Introvigne himself quotes from this "CESNUR Press Release" in a footnote to his article "Molto rumore per nulla? Il 'rapporto italiano sulle sette'" (Cristianità, n. 277, maggio 1998, p. 12).  
Additionally, Kelebek is accused of having presented an English language translation of this same press release and of having quoted "long extracts of texts by Dr Massimo Introvigne". The "length" of such extracts is a matter of opinion, but it is true that we have always tired to make the highest possible number of primary sources available, without mediation from our own interpretations. 
In third place, Kelebek supposedly breached the law on privacy, by having put a link to the publicly accessible page of the lawyer's study Jacobacci & Perani, "thus enabling anyone to invade his daily life." Of course to associate Introvigne with that lawyer's partnership, all one has to do is look up Introvigne's name on such search engines as Altavista
The third point is that of having "offended the honour and the personality" of Dr Introvigne. Our pages are supposed to contain unspecified "offensive 'brushstrokes", but the "malicious intention appears from the site as a whole." It should be remembered that the contents of the site were made public on Internet nine months before the date of the lawyer's letter, and that CESNUR was perfectly aware of this, as can be seen from a long release devoted to us in November 1998 and still available on the web site of the organisation (we linked this at once to provide readers with full information). It should also be remembered that right from the beginning, CESNUR's director was promised "unlimited opportunity to reply" on our pages, an offer he never took advantage of. 
Finally, CESNUR's attorney says that the fact that the site hosts a collection of articles taken from "various newspapers and bullettins", which had never been sued in the past years, does not free the provider from his liability. 
Therefore, she writes, "I hereby call on you and warn you to immediately cease any activity of dissemination of the site www.kelebekler.com/cesnur", demanding evidence "of this in writing no later than June 20th next." 

June 18th, 1999 
Miguel Martinez 



Expressions of support and solidarity 

The Union of Islamic Communities and Organisations in Italy delivered the following protest message to the regional government of Piemonte: 
We protest against the intollerable censorship the Web magazine "Kelebek" has been subjected to. 
The use of public funds to pay lawyers willing to carry out such actions against freedom is something completely unacceptable. 
We express no opinion as to the views held by Kelebek, but the accusations made against them appear to be utterly groundless. 

Hamza R. Piccardo 
National Secretary of the Union of Islamic Communities and Organisations in Italy (UCOII) 



Mirror and support sites 

First of all, we are back on our original URL of http://www.kelebekler.com/, moved however to Austria. There are also several mirrors: 



CESNUR claims "victory" against free speech 

On June 14th, 1999, the web site Kelebek was closed down due to threats from the lawyers of CESNUR, the "Centre for Studies on New Religions" of patent lawyer Massimo Introvigne. 
Thanks to help from opponents of censorship and from the Islamic community, the website has been reopened at the following URLs: 
Http://www.xs4all.nl/~oracle/kelebekler/ 
Http://www.mond.at/kelebek/ 
Http://www.ummah.org.uk/kelebek/ 
Our release concerning this act of censorship has so far met with two replies. The first was posted in several NG (only the English language version is signed by Massimo Introvigne). 
The second reply (which we quote in full at the end of this text), a true call to a war of religion, was posted on the NG it.politica.cattolici. Its author is a militant of "Alleanza Cattolica", the Right-wing group of which Introvigne is one of the five national leaders. 


"Some days ago CESNUR lawyers and the Italian Internet provider for the notorious anti-CESNUR site reached a settlement, and the provider agreed to discontinue the site.

Apart from the definition of our site as "notorious", Kelebek is not an "anti-CESNUR" site. It deals with a wide range of issues, from the native peoples of the Caucasus to the symbolical geography of the Holy Land (see here), and also of course includes a section (not a site) of documents on CESNUR. 
Does the term "settlement" mean there was a financial arrangement, whereby the provider closed down our site against payment by CESNUR, or does Introvigne refer only to withdrawal of legal threats against closure of the site? 
The section of our site devoted to CESNUR contains a great deal of documentation. This documentation had been on the Net for nine months, without any legal complaint being moved against it. Then the provider was asked to suppress the entire site because a) we had picked up an official press release from the "Press Release" page of the CESNUR website and b) we had made a link to the public web page of Dr Introvigne's office. We were not contacted beforehand at all, and simply found we had been taken off Internet). 
Although this kind of behaviour is common among extremist groups who aim at liquidating their supposed enemies by any means necessary, the context here is entirely different. On the one hand, we have a scholarly organisation funded by the Italian State. On the other hand, we have a web site which provides a documented critique of the scholarly organisation. This site has never been accused of having used one offensive word or of having made one mistake. Does a scholarly organisation have the right to use any legally available means to suppress its critics? Science would not have progressed very far in such a case. 


"This small legal victory by CESNUR (largely symbolic, since the site can be mirrored in countries where providers have no legal liability, making actions hopelessly long) did not please the anti-CESNUR activists.

We understand CESNUR is pleased with its "victory". For Introvigne it seems to have been a kind of mini-Lepanto, where the Turkish fleet was destroyed by the forces of Christendom. 
However, doing a "whois" on the InterNIC website will show Dr Introvigne at once that our new providers are not in Ichkeria or Abkhazia, but in European countries. Their reaction to groundless legal threats may however be different from that of our Italian provider. 


"From their new home their site Kelebek promotes a full-scale information warfare against CESNUR, asking anti-cultists and naive Web passers-by to fload CESNUR's E-mailbox with messages of protest and to write to the State of Piedmont, CESNUR's only source of funds. All this in the name of a battle against Internet censorship, while the real censorship comes from those willing to strangle CESNUR by cutting off its funding.

Long before the CESNUR Critical Page ever appeared, the CESNUR web site hosted false allegations against me. Yet we never demanded the closure of the CESNUR website. The issue is, should the Italian taxpayer pay for an organisation which tries to silence its critics by reaching "settlements" with their providers? 


"Obviously State funds are strictly used by CESNUR for its scholarly activities. Legal actions are funded from the private pockets of the directors and, occasionally, from lawyers themselves who donate their work on a pro bono basis.

For some mysterious reason, possibly legal, these lines appear only in the English language version. We are glad to hear this. Since taxpayers' money is involved, where can CESNUR's accounts be viewed? 


"The new home of the anti-CESNUR Web site is www.ummah.org.uk, a well-known Islamic fundamentalist site. Go there, click on "action", and you realize that this is a gateway to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Talebans, and other similar organizations. You will be exposed to propaganda against the U.S. and Israel and in favour, among others but quite prominently, of Saddam Hussein, and may read anti-Christian Islamic texts (the latter have always been included in the anti-CESNUR site Kelebek: apparently its Christian anti-cult supporters did not care).

Massimo Introvigne has always claimed that the close ties between CESNUR and Alleanza Cattolica are of no importance whatsoever. We could answer in the same way, with far more reason since - unlike him - we are not tied to any organisation (remember, we are butterflies!). We could also point out that Ummah Net is just one of our three mirrors: none of the others are Islamic. Also, Introvigne for years has been claiming that no such thing as mind control exists in groups like Scientology. The same Introvigne says that all you have to do is click on a button and you will get "exposed to propaganda" - the Italian language version, even more explicitly, says "get indoctrinated." Apparently CESNUR's scales are heavily weighted in favour of any product from the USA and against Islam. 
However, unlike Introvigne, we have the habit of answering every point that is raised. Ummah Net, besides hosting us, hosts a practically limitless range of Islamic opinions, including mutually exclusive views (by the way, Introvigne seems to have got an Iranian film maker living in England mixed up with Saddam Hussein). 
We have missed the alleged "anti-Christian Islamic texts" on Kelebek. Possibly, Introvigne is referring to the review of a booklet by a Fundamentalist Catholic, who calls Islam a "cult" and compares it to the Watchtower Society. Nothing else can be remotely construed as "anti-Christian". Dr Introvigne is well aware of this, and is obviously trying to unleash a war of religion to silence his critics. 


"At least, this time there is a clear international political signature. Friends of the anti-CESNUR Web site now know what kind of international network they are supporting.

During the recent campaign of posts on Usenet against us, we were told that we were part of a conspiracy organised by the fundamentalist Catholic, anti-Islamic organisation "Forza Nuova". 
The CESNUR website recently added an item revealing that the "anti-cult movement" is backed by Communists, Socialists and Freemasons (the "religious minorities" referred to here are not of course Muslims, but a definite group of US transnational corporations): 

"On June 8, 1999 the U.S. Joint Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe held a new hearing on 'Religious Freedom in Western Europe: Religious Minorities and Growing Government Intolerance' [...] 
In a lively discussion with the witnesses and on the basis of data offered by them, Chairman Smith concluded that two influences explain why intolerance of minority religions is particularly widespread in France and French-speaking Belgium. Firstly, the anti-cult and often simply anti-religious lobbying efforts of continental Freemasonry (a secular humanist brand of Freemasonry which is not in communion with mainline U.S. and British Freemasonry). Secondly, the strong residual presence in French-speaking culture of socialist and communist elements, both anti-American and anti-religious." 
(http://www.cesnur.org/testi/CSCE.htm) 

The addition of the "Green Peril" makes this conspiracy virtually universal. 
Introvigne has already dealt with Islam in a critical fashion in the magazine "Cristianità", organ of Alleanza Cattolica. Cristianità celebrated the thousandth anniversary of the Crusades by devoting its cover, for one whole year (1997), to triumphalistic engravings on the Crusades. Alleanza Cattolica's sister group, "Centro Lepanto", even organised a special public recital of the rosary as reparation for the "blasphemous" building of a mosque for Rome's Islamic community. 
Introvigne's intention appears to be that of reviving the latent fears and hysteria of the Western world towards Islam, in order to distract attention from the very simple issue involved: the fact that his lawyers made an "offer a provider couldn't refuse" in order to liquidate his critics. 

Miguel Martinez 
For Kelebek
(22.06.99) 


The following post by Giulio Dante Guerra on it.politica.cattolici (June, 22) is a clear symptom of how the Crusader spirit is being artificially reawakened for reasons which have nothing whatsoever to do with Islam: 

"IMHO the secular humanist adversaries of CESNUR should be asked a question: how can they consider Islamic fundamentalists like this 'friends of freedom of expression'? It seems like we have gone back to the 'priest hating' days of the 19th century, when 'free thought' was a synonym for 'virulent and aggressive anti-Catholicism'; at the time it was not yet Islamic, because 'Turks' and 'Beduins' were seen to be 'backward peoples'. 
And Christians co-operate with people like that? Let them all go and get themselves circumcised! 
Giulio


CESNUR replied to the above reply indirectly, through an anonymous to every newsgroup where our reply had appeared. 
CESNUR's post - though refreshingly polite and amusing compared to the past - continues to fan the flames of religious conflict. Without going into the crucial censorship issue, this post gave the irrelevant information that the Islamic site Ummah Net also hosted some fiercely anti-Israeli (and perhaps even anti-Jewish) material, and that a private, Right-wing institution in Israel called the "International Policy Studies for Counter-Terrorism" considers Ummah Net a "terrorist site." 
I have no idea of everything that Ummah Net hosts but I do happen to know quite well an extremely pro-Israeli site they host - http://www.ummah.org.uk/islamic_institute/. This is the site of the Cultural Institute of the Italian Islamic Community, a small organisation in Rome run by Massimo Abdul Hadi Palazzi, which believes the Jews have a divine (Qur'anic) right to the Holy Land and should build their Third Temple on the site currently occupied by the al-Aqsa precinct. Mr Palazzi is also the director of the "Islam-Israel Fellowship." This of course has nothing to do with the fact that Kelebek was censored off the web for providing too much information on CESNUR, but it does prove my point that Ummah Net hosts a very wide range of Islamic opinions indeed. 

Miguel Martinez 
(25.06.99) 



Introvigne's lawyer does not reply to our repeated requests to publish her legal threats 

Following are our repeated requests for permission to publish the original letter from Introvigne's lawyer. None of these messages ever received any answer. The previous correspondence referred to here took place in Spring, when Cesnur's lawyer demanded the removal of another page which is still on our website. By the way, at the time she made no mention of the pages she is currently objecting to. 

Miguel Martinez 
(06.07.99) 


Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 00:21:14 +0200 
To: xxxx 
From: marmi@imola.queen.it 
Subject: Request for publication 
Cc: [Cesnur, Massimo Introvigne] 

Dear Dr Xxxx, 
Some time ago we had an amusing correspondence with each other about your express courrier, who took no less than eight days to deliver me a message of yours (I must say I did not pay very much attention to the message itself). 
The return registered letter where you forced your (by now world famous) "settlement" on our unhappy provider actually took two weeks to cover the distance from Turin to Imola. 
However, this time I am complaining about your secretaries. How can it be that in all these days' time they never gave you our very simple request? 
Perhaps Dr Introvigne - who is in Cc - should have chosen a more prompt attorney's office to take care of his interests. 
However I trust you will allow me to be your spokesman. 

Miguel Martinez 
For Kelebek 


Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 05:18:53 +0200 
To: xxxx 
From: marmi@imola.queen.it 
Subject: Request for publication 
Cc: [Cesnur, Massimo Introvigne] 

Dear Dr Xxxx, 
I must say I was disappointed by what seems a lack of basic courtesy on your side. We are still waiting for your permission to publish your letter. 
In the past, I replied promptly to the letters you sent me, I don't see why you should not or cannot do the same. 
Should your silence be due to other reasons, for example a sudden absence from your office, please accept my apologies. 

Miguel Martinez 
For Kelebek 


Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 08:47:07 +0200 
To: xxxx 
From: marmi@imola.queen.it 
Subject: Request for publication 
Cc: [Cesnur, Massimo Introvigne] 

Dear Dr Xxxxx, 
We are still waiting for your answer to the enclosed message. 

For Kelebek 
Miguel Martinez 


Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 17:14:58 +0200 
To: xxxxx 
From: marmi@imola.queen.it 
Subject: Request for publication 
Cc: [Cesnur, Massimo Introvigne] 

Dear Dr Xxxx, 
Should you not have received the following message, I take the liberty of sending it to you again. I would like to add what we already wrote on our site - we have no interest in publishing your name or that of the provider. We simply want to provide everybody access to original sources, as we always do. Presenting your original document on our site, and not our interpretation of it, is I believe both your right and our duty. 
I look forward to your reply. 

For Kelebek 
Http://www.ummah.org.uk/kelebek/ 
Miguel Martinez 


Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 21:49:28 +0200 
To: Xxxxx 
From: marmi@imola.queen.it 
Subject: Request for publication 
Cc: [Cesnur, Massimo Introvigne] 

Dear Dr Xxxx, 
Many people have asked us to publish the letter where you demanded the closure of our website. 
In order to provide complete documentation and to allow the public to know your point of view as well as ours, I think this would be an excellent idea. Of course we would present the complete text of your letter, translated into several languages. 
Since your letter has had a practical impact on the whole Web, and many people are wondering what happened and why, it would seem almost superfluous to ask your permission, but courtesy obliges us to do so. 

I look forward to your reply. 

For Kelebek 
Miguel Martinez 



What can I do to stop this censorship? 

If you agree with us that Kelebek should be free to fly again, and if you want to object to this umpteenth case of Internet censorship, you can: 
- Help us get the word around, telling friends, newspapers, newsgroups, mailing-lists, groups and associations that safeguard freedom of speech on the Net. Pass around copies of the press release and provide the URL of this site! 
- Link this page to your web space, for example using one of these images as a banner (these are four transparent GIF's, optimised for both dark and light backgrounds). 



- Write protest letters or statements of solidarity with Kelebek and send them to the director of CESNUR Massimo Introvigne and to the Regional Government of Piemonte which gives public funds to an organisation that has suppressed the only source of critical information available in Italy on its activities, opened by Italian citizens. Or else you can send the image below, writing the URL of this page in the body of your message. 



- Open a mirror of this site. If you need help, write to the author of Kelebek
- Host a copy of Kelebek. The whole site takes up nearly 8 megabytes, they can be cut down to about 6. Get in touch with the author of Kelebek



A heart-felt thank you 
Keep us posted on the initiatives you are taking to defend Kelebek! 
FIGHT CENSORSHIP ON THE INTERNET 
The URL of this page is: http://www.kelebekler.com/censura/