Religious Apartheid: 1996 – Official Repression of Minority Religious Rights in Germany
he Federal Republic of Germany has not denied the vast majority of cases of discrimination documented and specified in this report. Instead, the German government has sought to justify this discrimination and the resultant egregious injury to Church parishioners on the grounds that Scientology is a “youth sect” not entitled to the protections which flow to bona fide religions.
This justification is meritless. The government has no right to target individuals for discrimination based on their sincerely held personal beliefs. Moreover, as documented below, Scientology is a bona fide religion. Its purposes and all its activities are exclusively religious, a fact that has been affirmed by judicial and administrative decisions time and again.
Regrettably, Germany’s response highlights the government’s adamant refusal to even acknowledge the indisputable fact that there is a serious human rights problem due to minority religious discrimination in Germany which requires immediate remediation. It demonstrates why the Church and its parishioners, as well as parishioners of other faiths with relatively small denominations in Germany such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Moslems, fundamentalist Christian groups, parishioners of the Unification Church and Hare Krishna adherents have been unable to resolve these problems by availing themselves of domestic remedies. The sad truth is it has been impossible to even initiate a meaningful dialogue with the German government regarding minority religious discrimination in Germany.
The religious character of Scientology has long been unequivocally recognized in hundreds upon hundreds of administrative and judicial decisions around the globe. In many of these cases, experts and scholars in theology and comparative religion have rendered their learned opinions that Scientology more than satisfies any applicable academic or philosophic definition of religion. As the religion moves into its fifth decade, it continues to grow with thousands of Churches and Missions and related organizations and millions of parishioners on six continents in more than 90 countries. After more than 40 years of history as a distinct religious denomination, there is no legitimate issue as to the “religiosity” of Scientology.
Courts and various governmental agencies in the United States, Europe and other countries have repeatedly determined that Scientology is a bona fide religion. The following are but a few examples of some of the court rulings and agency determinations concerning Scientology’s religiosity.
Scientology is a Bona Fide Religion Serving Exclusively Religious and Charitable Purposes Continued
