This Sunday, a strange procession could be seen flowing down the streets near Times Square, converging on the NYC Scientology Center. Clad in Guy Fawkes masks, scarves and heavy shades, they came together in front of the gray four-story building waving flyers and picket signs.

This was not the set of a new sequel to V for Vendetta. It was a part of Project Chanology, a push by internet group Anonymous to protest Scientology worldwide. "Tax the cult!" chanted the crowd of about 150 towards the Center, referring to Scientology's tax exempt status as a religion – a source of much controversy. "Why are they dead?" others picked up, referring to the strange death of Lisa McPherson, Scientologist. In 1994 when she suffered a mental breakdown, the Church made sure she did not check into psychiatric care, putting her into a Church resort instead where she withered away. The date February 10 chosen for the protest is the date of her birthday.

"The church's normal activities… will not be interrupted," said John Carmichael, president of the New York City Scientology chapter, standing nearby. "I'm pleased that local authorities are taking appropriate measures to minimize the negative impact of these cyber terrorists."

An hour into the protest, the police asked the protesters to remove their masks, as wearing them at a protest is prohibited by state statute. Most complied and explained their masks as a defense against the church's tendency to track and sue or otherwise harass its critics. This policy called "Fair Game" had been officially cancelled by the church in 1968 but continued to be used until the present day against people such as BBC journalist John Sweeney who made critical comments about the church in 2007.

"You can't underestimate the church," said a protester who chose to remain anonymous, as he handed out flyers in the freezing wind. "The way they silence their critics, it's just sick." The protesters had a high tech presence, over a third owning cameras and some carrying laptops. They snapped pictures constantly and kept track of how the protest was going in other cities through forums and internet relay chat. Nonetheless, many of the participants were not from the original forums and were new faces to the Anonymous collective trying to spread the message to the general public.

"Since releasing the [declaration of war] video, Anon has grown eightfold. The original video has over 2 million views since it was released," said Philippe of 4chan.org. Anonymous is a group of thousands of internet users that came together in online image forums such as 4chan.org and 711chan.org. After the Church of Scientology pulled a controversial video of Tom Cruise from YouTube.com, Anonymous raised an outcry about the Church's censorship. The group posted a video press release on Jan 16 declaring war on Scientology and their intention to remove the Church from the face of the internet. This "Project Chanology" attracted much attention from the media after Anon's successful Denial of Service attacks to the Scientology website.

"We want everyone to know that we're not a group of super hackers," said the anonymous protester, large gray hood billowing in the wind. "We are not against the believers of Scientology. We are against the organization. The church."

by Igor Kossov