|
|
|
Home > Publications > Religious Apartheid 1997
Religious Apartheid 1997 – Continuing Official Repression of Minority Religious Rights in Germany
In June of 1996, the Chairpersons of the Congressional Arts Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and the Congressional Human Rights Caucus of the United States Congress expressed their deep concern that celebrated jazz musician Chick Corea was “again the target of religious discrimination by members of the German government.”97
In June and August of 1996, the Chairman of the Committee on International Relations in the United States House of Representatives, Benjamin Gilman, expressed his concern about intolerance in Germany directed at Scientologists which “seems to have crossed the line into discriminatory action prohibited by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Helsinki Accords.”98
The State Department responded to Chairman Gilman in July of 1996, noting that the State Department “shares your concern on this issue and has sought to engage the German government in an ongoing dialogue on discrimination against American Scientologists in Germany.”99
In August of 1996, Congressman Carlos Moorhead wrote to the German ambassador to the United States to protest the “unjustified persecution” of Scientologists and to demand that the German government “show no tolerance for attacks on people who hold divergent religious views.”100
Scholars and Human Rights organizations have also expressed their concern about discrimination directed against Scientologists in interventions at the United Nations and in human rights reports.
In May 1996, the Rutherford Institute published its Handbook on Religious Liberty Around the World. The section on Germany included details regarding discrimination against Scientologists in Germany.101
In August 1996, CESNUR, the Center for Studies on New Religions, an international network of scholarly associations devoted to the study of new religious movements, called for an end to religious intolerance towards new religions in Germany.102
Indeed, some responsible German officials are also questioning the government’s discriminatory policies.
In September 1996, the former Minister of Justice, Sabina Leuthheusser-Schnarrenberger, criticized proposed measures against Scientologists as a tactic to set aside “constitutional principles, the rule of law, [and] the restriction of authority of the State” in order to erode individual rights and introduce a “thought police” in Germany.103
In addition, the head of Germany’s parliamentary interior affairs committee stated in November 1996 that the actions taken to shut out Scientologists from the civil service was “wrong.” 104 ![[End of text]](img/endy.jpg)
| Previous | Glossary | Contents | Next |
| Your View | Related Sites | Home Page |
|
