A Moscow region court has declared books and brochures by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard as extremist, the Prosecutor General's Office said in a statement Thursday.

The Shchyolkovo town court, at the request of local prosecutors, ruled that Hubbard's book "What Is Scientology?" and "several other" brochures "call for extremist activities" and include "humiliating characteristics" of people depending on their social status, the statement said.

Hubbard's essays are "aimed at forming an isolated social group" whose main task is to "fight the rest of the world," it said.

The works should now be placed on the Justice Ministry's federal list of extremist materials and banned from distribution in Russia.

Inciting hatred can be punished by up to five years in prison.

More than two dozen essays by Hubbard were removed from the Justice Ministry's list by a Khanty-Mansiisk court in mid-April when the court overturned its own ruling ordering that they be included on the list in March 2010.

Since the ministry started the list in late 2006, nearly 900 items have been included on it.