Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution as an Instrument for Character Assassination

The right to freedom of religion outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the same in China as in Germany. In Germany, however, Scientologists are under surveillance by government intelligence services, and the repressive apparatus of the state is brought to bear on them. This leaves no option for German officials but to be shamefully silent about China. Or is their silence a tacit signal of partial agreement? We shall never know.

Without doubt, the surveillance of a religious community by intelligence means ranks high on the brutality scale of religious persecution. Those affected are deeply impaired in their ability to exist and survive in the community. Such treatment stigmatizes and ostracizes them, and is therefore an attack on human rights.

That such a thing can happen teaches us that a free democratic state is no cure-all for human rights violations. A state is only as good as the moral qualities of its government officials. The discrepancy between the political obligations of the state and the ideological reality, as reflected in the actions of its representatives, is in part what this publication addresses. It contributes to important and basic questions concerning fundamental governmental agreements that inevitably can affect every citizen.

Munich.
August 2, 1999

Wilhelm Bluemel
Attorney at Law