HATE WATCH | JANUARY 29, 2026

Hate Crimes Against Scientologists Surge by 60%—Inspired by People Like Leah Remini

Leah Remini has spent more than a decade publicly demonizing Scientology, and, tellingly, her rhetoric comes amid a striking surge in anti-Scientology incidents.

LA Hate Crime Report statement on Muslims and Scientologists

The Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations recently released its annual Hate Crime Report, and it paints a grim picture of the state of religious intolerance in America’s most populous county.

Though they may not have fired the bullet, lit the torch or thrown the bomb, they are the puppet masters, manipulating others to do the dirty work in their name.

With a vast and religiously diverse population, Los Angeles is often seen as a bellwether for the rest of the nation when it comes to matters of faith. That makes it all the more alarming that anti-Scientology hate crimes surged by 60 percent—nearly six times the increase seen in anti-Muslim hate crimes—reaching their highest level on record and accounting for 6 percent of all hate crimes targeting religion. Anti-Jewish hate crimes, meanwhile, decreased by 17 percent in the same period.

Scientologists were the third most targeted religious group, just after Jews and Muslims.

Such spikes in religious hate crimes do not occur in a vacuum. They are often fueled by sustained public campaigns that frame entire faith communities as legitimate targets of contempt or eradication—turning believers into statistics.

The instigator of one such campaign is notorious anti-religious bigot Leah Remini.

Remini’s inflammatory proclamation that “Scientologists are so easy to attack,” for example, was apparently taken by certain deranged followers as a call to arms.

Taken together, her rants form a sustained campaign of unadulterated hate. Over the course of more than a decade—and with ever-mounting shrillness—Remini has vilified Scientology as “pure f—king evil” and its members as “robot[s],” “p-ssies,” and “a bunch of f—king like body snatchers” who are “selling your soul to the devil,” do “not enjoy their lives,” “can’t afford to feed their families,” “don’t give a s—t,” and have “done nothing good.”

She has also threatened to use the “information” she has “on all of you” Scientologists and “your famil[ies]” for intimidation—even boasting, “We have come after other people who have supported Scientology.”

Remini’s rants have resulted in hundreds of threats and acts of violence against parishioners, among them: “someone needs to murder” the religion’s leader “ASAP”; Scientologists “need to be eradicated from the face of the earth”; “Literally gonna torch down every scientology center” and “I hope someone blows your f**king building up on live tv!!!... DIE!”

Remini’s rants have been associated with a shocking pattern of real-world violence:

In 2015, a twice-convicted criminal armed with an arsenal of ammunition and gun paraphernalia threatened to “assassinate” the ecclesiastical leader of Scientology, later admitting to authorities that Leah Remini had inspired his plot.
A woman drove a car through the front doors of the Church in Austin, Texas, stopping just short of the nursery. She called Remini “a true inspiration,” remarking that it was “too bad” no one had been hurt.
A 24-year-old Scientologist was fatally stabbed outside the Church’s Australian headquarters. The killer’s mother said he had been incited by an anti-Scientology website featuring Leah Remini’s hate and linking to her show.

Given the pattern of violence her rhetoric has inspired, international media accused the self-described “crappy, has-been actress who is trying to make a dollar off my church” of having blood on her hands.

Remini’s is the playbook of every merchant of hate. Though they may not have fired the bullet, lit the torch or thrown the bomb, they are the puppet masters, manipulating others to do the dirty work in their name.

As evidenced by this latest report on the state of hate in LA County, small people like Remini have used lies and bigotry to convert prejudice into crimes against peaceful communities whose only offense is holding different beliefs.

The challenge moving forward is for the county—and the nation—to recognize that religious diversity is not a threat to be managed, but an asset to be protected. That will only happen if those who profit from spreading bigotry are exposed and held to account, so they can no longer endanger innocent communities.

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