Church of Scientology of Berlin
While Tom Cruise, a well known Scientologist, was receiving a Bambi Award in Germany for the courage he showed in overcoming intense personal attack for seeking to film Valkyrie a movie in Germany about the failed attempt assassination attempt on Hilter during WWII, members of the German government were busy once again behind the scenes concocting the latest attempt to suppress members of the Church of Scientology in Germany by false villification by claiming without any foundation or specifics that the aims of the Church are unconstitutional.No one who is familiar with German political life would believe that the trouble that Mr. Cruise ran into in Germany was anything but the result of the illegal and immoral discriminatory policy of certain German officials against members of the Church of Scientology.
Reporting on the irresponsible pronouncements of the German conference of Ministers of Interior, the press has intentionally never provided its readers with the actual aims of the Church of Scientology. The the public are instead only subjected to the false sweeping generalized lies of the witch hunting Interior Ministers. These lies can be easily disproven but they are nonethless picked up and parrotted by a German press which seems completely willing to repeat the most outrageous falsehoods from political opportunists – withough question or critical examination.
In sharp contrast to the the progressive thinking individuals who awarded Mr. Cruise for his courage, the Ministers of Interior of the various German states who have supported the 10 year surveillance and harassment of the Church of Scientology by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution without ever finding any evidence of wrongdoing are an abject display of cowardice.
There are over 40 court decisions in Germany alone, not to mention in the European Court of Human Rights, that guarantee the freedom of Scientologists to practice their religion under the constitution of Germany. That these Ministers of Interior continue to ignore and feign ignorance of these court decisions, while continuing to utter their discriminatory pronouncements and false claims that the Church has anti-constitutional aims, is a display of dangerous bureaucratic incompetence that resembles the totalitrarian system of a previous era.
Their frustration that their ten year investigation of the Church has resulted in no evidence against the Church makes one wonder what political ideology these German “security” officials would really like to create in Germany.
It is time that these misguided and shorsighted German “security” officials, lead by Wolfgang Schaeuble, wake up and smell the coffee. The Church of Scientology is thriving in Germany and plans on continuing to do its job to the best of its ability. No amount of political posturing, illegal surveillance, infiltration or propaganda in the press is going to change that.
People around the world who believe in human rights are calling on these “security” officials start behaving as good citizens and adhering to the very laws, court rulings and constitution that is their duty to uphold – just like members of the Church of Scientology do – and stop acting as though they are above the law.
In sharp contrast to the recent malicious propaganda spread by these ministers about banning the Church of Scientology in Germany, here are recent decisions concerning Scientology in other Democratic Countries:
On the 31st of October 2007, the National Court in Madrid issued a landmark decision recognizing that the National Church of Scientology of Spain should be entered in the Registry of Religious Entities as a religion.
On the 24th of September 2007, the European Court of Human Rights confirmed the Court’s unanimous decision of April 2007 affirming that the Church of Scientology is entitled to the rights and protections of religious freedom that flow to religious organizations pursuant to Article 9 of the European Human Rights Convention.
The principles enunciated in that decision upheld the religious freedom of Scientologists and their religious associations and apply throughout the forty-seven member states that have signed and ratified the European Human Rights Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, including Germany.
On the 5th of November 2007, the Church of Scientology of Portugal was officially recognized as a religious organization.
On the 3rd of December 2007, the South African Revenue Service granted the Church of Scientology the status of a Public Benefit Organization as a religious entity with full tax exemption.
In hindsight, the Church of Scientology probably has little to worry about from a political body (the conference of German Ministers of Interior of the various German states) that does not have the intelligence to realize that by their own constitutution every German has the right to believe and practice their own religion freely without being dictated to by any political ideology in power. If for no other reason than the sheer incompetence that they have displayed there is probably little reason for concern. While the Ministers of Interior seek to play God, judge and jury with regard to religion, there is little doubt that they will be embarrassed and disgraced in any fair judical forum that seeks to review any ban law that they propose.
Filed under: Church of Scientology, European Court of Human Rights, Germany, Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Scientology, Scientology Celebrities, Separation of Church and State, Tom Cruise, Valkyrie, Wolfgang Schaeuble, anti-religious extremist, human rights, human rights abuse, religious discrimination
