LAS VEGAS, July 18 – Rael, spiritual leader of the International Raelian Movement (IRM) has awarded the title “Honorary Guide for Humanity” to Dr. Jacques Cohen. According to a statement released today by the IRM, Rael conferred the honor because Cohen assisted in the birth of 30 genetically altered babies whose mothers were infertile and couldn’t otherwise have had children.

“He was the first scientist with the courage to do this,” said Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, IRM spokesperson and head of Clonaid and Stemaid, two companies involved in cytoplasmic transfer outside the United States. “He has been a pioneer in this field for years, demonstrating his willingness to move ahead regardless of opposition. In 2001, when he gave a presentation on the first case of human germline genetic modification resulting in normal healthy children, a huge ethical debate ensued, similar to the human cloning debate.”

Boisselier said Cohen’s clinic at St. Barnabas chose to stop performing cytoplasmic transfers to comply with FDA warning letters threatening enforcement action.

“Now, more than 10 years later, the FDA still hasn’t eased that policy,” she said, adding that the FDA has thus far exhibited a rigid, ridiculously shortsighted outlook on promising new technologies that could alleviate human suffering.

“For example, a Cornell team, led by Nikica Zaninovic, used a virus to add a green fluorescent protein gene to a human embryo left over from an in vitro fertilization procedure,” Boisselier said. “But they didn’t get permission to keep the embryo alive to be certain the new gene had been inserted. The embryo was destroyed after 5 days.”

She said such governmental interference is partly the result of unwarranted fears.

“Why so much fear for a technology that could prevent genetic defects in millions of individuals yet to be born?” Boisselier commented. “It’s important to give homage to Dr. Cohen for his courage in helping 30 infertile women to carry a child thanks to his genetic modification of their eggs. That’s why Rael has decided to award him the highest title recognized by the Raelian Movement.”

Boisselier said human cloning and genetic modification are both fully supported by the Raelian philosophy.

In 2001, in his book “Yes to Human Cloning,” Rael wrote:

“It is a crime against humanity to allow children to be born who will suffer all their lives when we already know how to ensure that only healthy children are born.” Yet he was optimistic that the situation would change soon. In the same book, he predicted:

“The day will come when ‘ethical questions’ about human germline genetic modifications will [themselves] seem totally unethical, since[ such questions] do not take the real happiness of the possible child or the future of humanity into consideration. Wisdom lies in allowing people to choose. If freedom of choice is allowed, the vast majority of parents would want to choose the characteristics of their future child rather than leave them all to chance. No mother in the world wishes anything but the best for her child, with the exception of a few people who are completely submissive to a consciousness-restricting religious belief.”

According to Rael, those with consciousness-restricting religious beliefs should not be allowed to dictate that society permit children to be born with physical monstrosities, or likely to lead lives mired in sickness or with the impairments of handicaps, when we now know how to prevent such suffering through genetic modifications made before birth.

“[Those with limited consciousness] have no right to impose on society the burden of additional handicapped children, for such children are the fruit of the criminal decision to ban genetic modifications,” he wrote.

Boisselier said Cohen now works for a company called Reprogenetics, which is involved in pre-implantation genetic diagnostics.

“The term ‘reprogenetics’ was coined by Lee M. Silver, a professor of molecular biology at Princeton University,” Boisselier said. “He described it as a combination of technologies that will allow parents to pick out the genetic characteristics of their own children and eliminate the disease genes that could be passed on to them.”

She said these new technologies will trigger many changes in society in the decades after their implementation.

“History teaches us that in almost every case of a major scientific advance, some people acted out of fear and ignorance to suppress it,” Boisselier said. “Nevertheless, scientific advances are the only hope for humanity on this planet.”

“If everyone on earth gives one minute of meditation for peace and love, then we can change the world.”
Maitreya Rael, July 2012

TOKYO, JULY 13 - In a recent address, Rael, spiritual leader of the Raelian Movement, proposed to have as many people as possible give just one minute of their time to meditate for peace.

“What we think, what we express and what we feel is affecting everything else in the universe and of course everything on Earth,” Rael said. We are powerful brain wave transmitters and the Earth needs peace and love.”

He asked the audience to imagine human beings coming from another planet who want to contact us.

“Looking at all the borders and fights between countries, they obviously don’t know who to contact,” Rael said. “We need to build an embassy for those who created us, the Elohim, because we have borders and about 200 countries, and they don’t want to give an advantage to one nation over another. The ideal situation when landing on a planet is to find that there is only one nation. This is why we have to destroy borders, nations, national flags and nationalism.”

Rael went on to say that our priority is to create one united world where every human being lives in peace, with a one-world government and without armies, so that the Elohim can come.

“That’s why we need to influence this planet to make it more peaceful. Our brains can send powerful waves of peace and love. Just a few people using their brains to send waves of peace and love can change this world!”

With that in mind, the more than 70,000 Raelians worldwide will soon have booths and banners proposing passersby to join them for one-minute peace meditations.

LAS VEGAS, July 11 - “Our GoTopless organization strongly denounces the arrest of Holly Van Voast, who was handcuffed and taken to a mental hospital on Sunday just for standing topless outside a Hooters restaurant in New York City,” said Nadine Gary, president of GoTopless, a Las Vegas-based organization.

Gary said that when the arrest occurred, Van Voast was simply standing outside a Midtown Hooters location with friends, preparing to honor the 20th anniversary of the day New York became a legally topless state: July 7, 1992.*

“She was within her legal rights to go topless there, but the police treated her like a deranged, violent person,” Gary exclaimed. “It’s outrageous!”

After the arrest, Van Voast was forced to wait several hours in a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, Gary said.

“This incident was an act of pure insanity on the part of the NYPD and of a deranged society in general,” Gary said. “Are men taken to mental hospitals and made to undergo psychiatric evaluations for taking off their shirts? This is an extreme case of a women’s rights violation; it constitutes blatant discrimination against women, and it’s also a human rights violation that can’t be tolerated in a democracy that prides itself for policing the world over human rights issues. The NYPD must be prosecuted immediately!”

Gary said GoTopless was founded in 2007 by international spiritual leader and human rights activist Rael, who also founded the International Raelian Movement (see rael.org).

“This latest topless-related arrest is especially noteworthy because of another New York City court case concerning a public topless charge,” Gary said. “Phoenix Feeley and her attorney, Jeff Rothman, successfully sued New York City for wrongful arrest, forcing the city to pay $29,000 in damages.” **

She said GoTopless is urging Van Voast to do the same thing.

“By taking this to court and winning, she will show that violations of women’s topless rights will not be tolerated and those who commit them will be found liable,” Gary explained. “In fact, we’re advising women who plan on going topless in New York to carry a GoTopless flyer listing the legal developments that confirm their right to do so.

Gary said the flyer will quote the 1992 appeals court case making it legal for women to go topless in New York and also include a summary of Phoenix Feeley’s 2007 case, which inspired Rael to launch the GoTopless organization that same year.

“A glance at the amount of damages paid by New York City for Feeley’s wrongful arrest will make police officers think twice about violating a woman’s rights if she decides to shed her top,” she said. “New York law is already on her side.”

Gary said GoTopless is also inviting everyone, women and men alike, to participate in the next annual GoTopless Day on Aug. 26, in honor of Women’s Equality Day.

“Going topless is our Constitutional right based on gender equality under federal law,” said Lara Terstenjak, spokesperson for GoTopless. As Rael has said, either both men and women should be able to go topless in public without interference or else no one at all should be allowed to bare a chest in public. The laws need to treat both genders equally, as the Constitution guarantees!”

She added, “We hope a huge number of women in New York City, where going topless is already legal, will have the courage to exercise their topless rights. The power of numbers will help prevent more of these wrongful, highly discriminatory arrests and psychiatric evaluations.”

Terstenjak said the act of freeing one’s breasts means more than freeing one’s mind from cultural and religious taboos.

“It means freeing an entire society that has imposed silent, unfair codes on women,” she said. “Many women have come to believe that such discrimination is normal. It’s not. It’s really time to stop the insanity, and the insanity doesn’t lie in a woman’s decision to go topless on a hot summer day. It lies in allowing only men to go bare-chested when everyone suffers equally from the heat!”

To learn more about GoTopless rallies planned for August 26 in cities across the United States, visit www.gotopless.org.

* The appeals court case making NY a topless state can be downloaded here: http://gotopless.org/files/2012-07/santorelli.pdf

** The stipulation and order of settlement and dismissal for Phoenix Feeley can be downloaded here: http://gotopless.org/files/2012-07/Phoenix.pdf

LAS VEGAS, July 6 – Rael, spiritual leader of the International Raelian Movement (IRM), today issued a statement congratulating scientists who favor higher, rather than wider, cities as the world’s population continues to soar.

He said a proposal by Dr. Karen Seto of Yale and Dr. Michail Fragkias of Arizona State for expanding cities vertically rather than horizontally “is exactly what the [extraterrestrial] scientists who created us, the Elohim, recommended in the Message they gave us in 1973, and it’s what they do on their own planet.” (See rael.org).

“The recent Rio+20 Earth Summit U.N. Conference, with all of its theatrics and non-binding declarations and documents, hasn’t given much attention to the work done by scientists like Seto and Fragkias,” said Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, IRM spokesperson. They’ve presented documented evidence about the dangers of ever-expanding cities, and they’re proposing the same solution Rael has recommended for nearly 40 years.”

At the Planet Under Pressure Conference held in London ahead of the Rio+20 Earth Summit, Seto and Fragkias showed how conversion of Earth’s land surface to urban use is one of the most irreversible effects of human impact on the global biosphere.

“According to their presentation, increasing urbanization ‘drives the loss of farmland, affects local climate, fragments habitats, and threatens biodiversity,’” Boisselier said.

“They reported that across all regions and for three decades, urban land expansion rates have been higher than or equal to urban population growth rates, suggesting that urban growth is becoming more expansive than compact. And according to their calculations, by 2030, 1,527,000 square kilometers of additional rural land will be transformed into urban landscape. That’s why they’re calling for more population-dense cities, cities that expand in height rather than continue to gobble up more land.”

Boisselier then quoted an excerpt from the Elohim Messages given to Rael, which included a description of the way a population of 7 billion is organized on their planet:

“Our [Elohim] cities have an average population of about 500,000 people spread over a very small area. An [Elohim] city is, in fact, a huge house situated in a high place, inside which people can do whatever they please. These ‘city houses’ are about one kilometer in both length and height, and they are traversed in all directions by waves used by everyone for travel purposes. You tie on a belt and then place yourself in a wave current, which transports you very rapidly to wherever you wish to go.”

“Our cities are cube-like in shape so that they do not eat up the countryside as they do where you live. Indeed, one of your[Earth] cities with, say, a population of about 500,000, covers a surface area 20 times greater than one of ours. The result is that when you want to go into the country, you have to travel for many hours, whereas in our case we are there in only tens of seconds. The same architect conceives an entire city, so that it will be pleasing to the eye and harmonize perfectly with the scenery surrounding it.”

LAS VEGAS, July 6 - While the scientific community stirs with the announcement of discovering the so-called Higgs Boson particle with 99 percent certainty, Rael, spiritual leader of the International Raelian Movement, issued a statement today reminding scientists that finding one particle cannot be taken as the final explanation for the structure of the universe.

“The Higgs Boson scientists are making the same mistake scientists made in the past when they discovered the 'atom,' which at the time meant 'that which cannot be made of something smaller,'" Rael said. "After a while, this Higgs Boson particle will be proven to be made of something smaller. And so on. It will go on like that until scientists start to realize that the universe is infinite in both directions: infinitely small as well as infinitely large. Nothing can exist without being made of something smaller, and nothing can exist without also being part of something larger."

“The infinite structure of the universe is one of the tenets of the Raelian philosophy,” explained Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, spokesperson of the Raelian Movement. “According to the Message given to Rael by the scientists who created us, our planet is but a particle of an atom in the gigantic being of which we are just a part, just as there is intelligent life in the particles of the atoms that compose us. By cranking energy higher and higher during the billions of atomic collisions performed to get the recently announced data, scientists have been able to observe just one more level of the infinitely small."

Boisselier said the process can never be completed, given the infinite nature of the universe described by Rael.

"After billions of additional dollars are spent on billions of additional collisions, more particles will pop up in the data," she said. "Hopefully, some of the thousands of people collaborating to analyze that data will see the patterns, the underlying fractal structure of the infinite universe."

She said Rael has long explained that the current exponential increase in data gathered by scientists will lead to a time where all major scientific principles will be understood.

"Transhumanists call that time the Singularity, and it should occur between 2025 and 2035," Boisselier said.

LAS VEGAS, July 2 – Rael, spiritual leader of the Raelian Movement, today commended a German court’s recent ruling that the circumcision of young boys for religious reasons amounts to bodily harm.

“Circumcision for men, like clitoral excision in females, constitutes sexual mutilation and should be forbidden,” Rael said. It is a position he has taken for years. He also favors a Norwegian political party that is currently seeking a ban on circumcision in Norway.

“Thousands of Germans have declared that a ruling of this kind was long overdue, and Raelians are happy to hear that,” said Brigitte Boisselier, PhD, spokesperson for the Raelian Movement. “We Raelians are the first to fight for religious freedom, but above all else, we fight for respecting human rights. Any genital mutilation of a human being without his or her consent clearly violates the Declaration of Human Rights and should be considered a criminal act, despite the attempts to justify it as a religious tradition.”

Boisselier said Jewish leaders have called the ruling anti-Semitic, while Muslims leaders have pronounced it islamophobic.

“But for the court, this ruling upholds a child’s right to physical integrity,” she said.

This isn’t the first time Raelians have taken a strong stance against genital alterations made in the name of religious or cultural traditions.

In 2006, Rael launched Clitoraid (www.clitoraid.org), an organization that helps women who have been genitally mutilated regain their physical integrity and sense of dignity as well as their ability to experience sexual pleasure.

“Thanks to a procedure developed by Dr. Pierre Foldes, a French surgeon, it’s now possible to repair what’s left of the mutilated clitoris,” Boisselier explained. “We’re setting up a hospital in Africa and several clinics in North America where the millions of women who have been mutilated can find relief by having that surgery performed.”

But what’s also interesting, she said, is that Clitoraid has been receiving hundreds of e-mails from men who have been circumcised.

“They’re seeking a way to have that mutilation undone,” Boisselier explained. She added that, according to the World Health Organization, 30 percent of males worldwide are circumcised.

“This means that billions of human beings on Earth have been genitally mutilated without their consent,” Boisselier declared. “We note that all the women who seek help from Clitoraid show clear signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. And I’m convinced that the billions of men who have been exposed to the traumatic mutilation of circumcision at an early age have developed also some degree of PTSD. It’s urgent to have more than just one court saying “Stop!” to this barbaric practice. All courts worldwide must place the right of a child above the right of a religion.”

She said Rael has repeatedly asked that all religious scriptures, teachings and practices be reviewed by an independent international committee, which would see to it that all religious group practices not in agreement with the Declaration of Human Rights be banned worldwide.

“All Raelian books and practices are open for review at any time by such a committee,” Boisselier said.

LAS VEGAS, June 28 – Facebook has informed Nadine Gary, president of the organization GoTopless (gotopless.org), that it is temporarily freezing her Facebook account because she posted a photo of Rihanna in which the celebrity appeared without wearing a top in NYC.

Gary said a Facebook representative told her that the picture, which Gary had posted on Facebook on behalf of GoTopLess, violated the social media site’s rules of decency.

“GoTopless is an activist women’s organization devoted to promoting women’s constitutional right to go topless in public,” Gary said in a statement released this morning. “The U.S. Constitution clearly upholds gender equality, and that principle should apply to laws dealing with the right to go topless as well as to the right to vote, bear arms and do many other things.”

Gary said Rihanna was seen exercising that right in New York City back in March, when she was seen going topless to a casual evening dinner.

“She was well within her legal rights, too, since New York State has allowed both men and women to go topless in public since 1992,” Gary said. “I posted the picture of Rihanna casually emerging from her limousine on a New York street to encourage other women to exercise that right wherever it’s currently legal, and to encourage other women to demand that any local or state law denying that right be changed in accordance with the gender equality guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.”

Gary said that for Rael, spiritual leader of the International Raelian Movement and founder of GoTopless.org, the equation is simple:

“As long as men can go topless, either women should have the same constitutional right or men should also be forced to wear something that hides their chests.”

Gary said GoTopless wants to put a legal end to “the double standard on topless rights that is rampant not only on Facebook but everywhere else in the United States.”

She said her organization is organizing topless rallies across the country for Aug. 26 to honor Women’s Equality Day, which is celebrated on that date.

“Ninety-one years ago, women demanded that the U.S. Constitution give them the right to vote on the basis of gender equality, and GoTopless will use that same argument to obtain women’s topless rights,” said Lara Terenjak, spokesperson for GoTopless.

According to Lara Terstenjak, Raelian leader in the US, male participants will wear bikini tops during the Aug. 26 rallies to cover their chests.

“We want all current laws to reflect the gender equality rights guaranteed by the U.S Constitution,” she said. “If Facebook and other media outlets were going strictly by that principle, they would be censoring not only photos of topless women, but all the photos in which men appear topless as well!”

LAS VEGAS, June 25 – Displays of swastikas at various locations in the western world on June 23, World Swastika Rehabilitation Day, triggered a mixed bag of reactions.

The displays were organized by the International Raelian Movement (IRM) and representatives from Eastern religions that have favorable views of the ancient symbol of peace and good will that was hijacked by the Nazis.

“A majority of the complaints came from the New York – New Jersey area, where a banner showing a swastika within the Raelian symbol was flown over Manhattan, the Jersey shore and Long Beach Island,” said Raelian Guide Thomas Kaenzig, coordinator of Swastika Rehabilitation Day. “But why should this symbol that still signifies peace and good will for more than 1.5 billion people worldwide, offend people in Manhattan?”

Explaining that the complaints were made largely by members of the Jewish community,
Kaenzig pointed out that restoration of the swastika’s original meaning is overdue.

“Should Buddhists, Hindus and Raelians have to hide this symbol because another group used it inappropriately 70 years ago and committed crimes?” he asked. “If so, then shouldn’t they also be offended by the Christian cross? After all, innocent people were executed by fanatical Christians during the Inquisition and by the Ku Klux Klan. Both used the cross as their symbol. And what about the atomic bomb victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Shouldn’t they ban the American flag? The list of horrific crimes associated with the use of symbols is long, but only the swastika has been banned.”

Kaenzig said negative emotions regarding the swastika by people under age 70 are obviously linked to cultural indoctrination and education, not to direct experience.

“It’s time people were re-educated to understand the original meaning of this oldest and most recurrent symbol in the world,” he said, adding that the Raelians and members of other religious groups who organized the June 23 events did so to inform the public.

“Our hope is that, despite its recent misuse by the Nazis, people will no longer be offended by what many cultures still consider a benign, peaceful symbol,” he said.
“It’s encouraging that we got a good reception where you might think the symbol would upset people the most – in Tel Aviv, Israel. People there were quite receptive to our flyers and the display of the old swastikas in their streets.”

Kaenzig explained that many swastikas can still be found in the old synagogues of Israel, and that Israeli Jews are very aware that the Jewish people themselves used the swastika as a peaceful symbol before it was misappropriated by the Nazis.

“The Jewish community on the U.S. East Coast doesn’t have the same awareness as its Israeli counterpart,” he said. The fact that New York Jews found our banner outrageous shows that there is still plenty of work to be done in that region.”

He said the reaction in Karlsruhe, Germany, was also less than favorable.

"We had a large group there, but it was not welcomed by the authorities," Kaenzig said. "The police clearly stated that signs displaying swastikas could not be shown at any time in the streets. Marcel Hoffman, leader of the Raelian Movement in Germany, decided to challenge that statute by holding pictures of ancient swastikas still existing in Germany because they predate the Nazi era. The police decided to charge him, and we hope he will have a chance to defend his viewpoint in court."

Despite these adverse reactions, others were at least able to see the point of Swastika Rehabilitation Day, Kaenzig said.

As one New York area reader put it after reading a mainstream media article about the June 23 display:

“I doubt they were flying the Nazi flag, as you have depicted. They were surely just flying a plain banner with a swastika on it, which — just as they say — was for thousands of years a symbol used universally, including by Jews. Some of the ancient shul mosaics in Eretz Yisroel have swastikas, and there were seforim printed with swastikas as a decorative motif. Until the Nazis used it, it had no bad associations. So now for us it’s a painful reminder and we shun it, but if these people hold it dear, we can’t really expect them to keep it in hiding just to spare our feelings. They want to expose it to sunlight and demystify it, so it will seem just as innocuous as it was before the war; I doubt it’s possible, but I can’t blame them for trying. After all, would we stop using a mogen dovid if the Japanese had used it as their symbol instead of the rising sun? “

“That's an excellent question," Kaenzig commented. "Would the Jewish community have accepted the banning of their symbol if another group had hijacked it and then committed crimes?” asked Kaenzig. “And what would the Jewish community do if the Palestinians were to someday ask the international community to ban the symbol used by their torturers?”

Elsewhere, the June 23 events got a much better reception, according to Kaenzig.

“On the U.S. West Coast and in Australia, our flying banner didn’t trigger any complaints that we know of,” he said, adding that those promoting the day on Venice Beach in California were, in fact, enthusiastically welcomed by locals acquainted with the symbol’s traditional meaning to Buddhists.

LAS VEGAS, June 22 - For the 3rd annual World Swastika Rehabilitation Day, Raelians, together with representatives from the Buddhist and Hindu religions, are planning to carry out major events in cities throughout the Americas, Australia and Africa on Saturday, June 23 (see http://www.raelpress.org/news.php?item.277.1).

In Europe, Raelians from Germany and its surrounding countries have decided to use this opportunity to inform the German public about the swastika’s history, since most Germans completely ignore the swastika’s good standing as a very ancient symbol of peace for Buddhists and a symbol of good luck for numerous other cultures.

The city of Karlsruhe, where the event is to be held, has nevertheless banned Raelians from displaying any type of swastika except for the Raelian symbol, in which a swastika intertwines with a six-pointed star.

“According to an order issued by the Karlsruhe government on June 15, the display of swastikas would lead to ‘an immediate danger for the public safety and order' (see http://www.proswastika.org/download.php?view.3),” explained Thomas Kaenzig, coordinator of World Swastika Rehabilitation Day. “But how can a peaceful assembly explaining the religious and multicultural origin of this symbol be a threat to public safety? The attempt by the German government to bury the swastika under the pretext that it’s a symbol of violence and hatred only gives credit to the horrible Nazi ideology. On the contrary, the government should encourage our action, since by giving this symbol its true value, we finally allow the German people to turn the page.”

Kaenzig said that is exactly what 18 members of the European Parliament did in a letter to the European Commission dated February 21, 2005. (See http://www.proswastika.org/download.php?view.4).

“For Raelians, the swastika is one of the most prominent traces left by the extraterrestrial scientists who created us, who were mistaken for gods by our ancestors,” Kaenzig said.
[See www.rael.org.] “We can find this symbol in all ancient cultures: in Buddhist manuscripts, on Shinto temples in Japan, in traditional African and Native American artwork, absolutely everywhere. Even in Israel one can find numerous synagogues and other ancient sites displaying the swastika.

[See http://www.proswastika.org/page.php?4.2 and following pages.]

“And last but not least, the Bellevue castle of the German president in Berlin proudly displays swastikas without compromising public safety.

[See http://www.swastika-info.com/de2/worldwide/germany/1298815635.html].

The ban by the city of Karlsruhe is an insult not only for all Raelians, but also for all Buddhists, Hindus and Shintos who represent a majority of the world's population.
As a reminder, in 1988 the Munich appeals court [OLG] has established that ‘use of the Raelian symbol obviously doesn't contravene against the protection purposes of article 86a of the penal code and is hence not punishable under this statute.’”

[See http://www.proswastika.org/download.php?view.1]

Kaenzig said that despite the ban imposed by the city order, the group in favor of rehabilitating the swastika has decided to proceed with the event, which will start at 3 p.m. at the Kronenplatz in Karlsruhe.

He added that in the United States, demonstrations will take place in Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Miami starting at 3 p.m. local time, and that large swastika banners will be flown in the skies of the Los Angeles area and along the New Jersey coastline from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. local time, and in the New York City area from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST.

To learn more about the swastika symbol, see www.proswastika.org.

LAS VEGAS, June 18 – Raelians have invited Buddhists, Hindus and the numerous spiritual groups who use the swastika as their spiritual symbol to stand up and show their support for the third annual Swastika Rehabilitation Day, to be held June 23 in cities around the world.

The swastika has been a symbol of peace and good luck in many Eastern religions and can be found on religious monuments and scriptures on every continent. It is also part of the spiritual symbol of the Raelian Movement.

Rael, the Movement's spiritual leader, has explained the recurrent presence of the swastika as the symbol of the advanced scientists who created all forms of life on Earth and guided humanity with the teachings of peace and love that are at the origin of all religions.

"The swastika is one of the best traces left by those who created us, and the attempt to bury it as a symbol of violence and hatred only gives credit to the horrible Nazi ideology," said Thomas Kaenzig, coordinator of World Swastika Rehabilitation Day. "Demystifying the original meaning of this beautiful symbol is the only solution," he explained. "We can't accept the fact that the swastika is still being hijacked, just as Christians wouldn't accept that the Christian cross was used to represent the ideology of the Ku Klux Klan. Images of swastikas within synagogues and various other ancient sites in Israel have also helped people of Jewish origin to recognize the importance of this rehabilitation day."

Kaenzig said it's time to educate the public and rehabilitate what Raelians consider to be the most important symbol for humanity.
He added that this year's world demonstration will include flying large swastika banners in the skies of several U.S. cities and presenting street swastika animations in Karlsruhe, Germany, and in Tel Aviv, Israel.

To learn more about the swastika symbol, see www.proswastika.org.
To learn more about the scientists who created humanity, see www.rael.org.