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Home > Official Documents > Church of Scientology Reply to The German Government’s Defense of its Discrimination
Church of Scientology Reply to the German Government’s Defense of its Discrimination
GERMAN GOVERNMENT: “No court has found that the basic and human rights of Scientology members have been violated.”
FACT: As recently as January 1999, the State Social Appeal Court for Rhineland-Palatinate held that an order by the Federal Ministry of Labor denying all Scientologists the right to run employment agencies was illegal and discriminatory. The Court ordered the Labor Office to reinstate the licence of a Scientologist who had been stripped of her right to run an agency, solely because of her religious affiliation.
After describing human rights abuses against Scientologists in Germany, the State Department Human Rights report for 1995 noted “Scientologists continued to take such grievances to court, and the courts have frequently ruled in their favor.”
GERMAN GOVERNMENT: “The Scientologists’ repeated allegations that artists belonging to Scientology are being discriminated against in Germany are false. Artists are free to perform or exhibit in Germany anywhere they please.”
FACT: A September 1993 report by the Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe found that Mr. Chick Corea, an internationally renowned musician, was banned by the government of Baden-Wuerttemberg from performing at a state-sponsored concert because he is a member of the Church of Scientology.
The German government states that Mr. Corea performed at the Burghausen jazz festival in March 1996 and that the event was funded by the Bavarian Ministry of Culture. This is correct. However, Mr. Corea testified before the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe on September 18, 1997, that after his highly successful performance, “the State-Minister President intervened and publicly compelled the Culture Minister to order the festival organizer to ban me from any future performance at a state-subsidized event. This is like being placed on a blacklist and extinguished as a performer, since in Germany the vast majority of music festivals are subsidized by the state.”
Mr. Corea has experienced numerous incidents of artistic discrimination in Germany for the past five years. Whereas formerly he performed approximately 15 concerts annually in Germany to sold-out audiences, the one or two he had been able to perform in recent years have resulted in government intimidation of concert promoters. It is disingenuous for the German government to use Mr. Corea’s sole 1996 performance to try to refute the allegation of artistic discrimination but to fail to mention the ban on Mr. Corea that followed or the ongoing pattern of discrimination he has faced.
Mr. John Travolta and Mr. Isaac Hayes also testified before the Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe in September 1997 that both American and German artists have experienced governmental religious discrimination. Mr. Hayes’ testimony detailed such incidents at length. They include cancellation of concerts by Scientology artists, denial of exhibition facilities, blacklisting, and disruption of artistic performances due to the artist’s religion. The U.S. State Department has also confirmed the existence of such discrimination in its annual human rights reports.
Continued...
For further information contact:
Leisa Goodman
(323) 960-3500
e-mail: humanrightsofficer@scientology.org
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