Church of Scientology Reply to the German Government’s Defense of its Discrimination
For further information contact:
Leisa Goodman
(323) 960-3500
e-mail: humanrightsofficer@scientology.org
Church of Scientology Reply to the German Government’s Defense of its Discrimination
GERMAN GOVERNMENT: The government claims that a decision in a court in Lyon in November 1996 supports its view of Scientology.
FACT: The ruling was overturned by the Lyon Court of Appeal in July 1997. The Court of Appeal fully recognized the religiosity of Scientology and in support cited French constitutional and European human rights conventions which guarantee freedom of religion.
GERMAN GOVERNMENT: “Contrary to allegations that Scientologists’ children have been prevented from attending school, all children in Germany, including Scientologists’, are legally required to attend school. If a Scientologists’ child is not enrolled in a German school, it can be only that the parent has pulled the child out.”
FACT: Children of Scientologists have been denied admittance to schools and kindergartens owing to their parents’ religious affiliation, while other children have been harassed while attending school. In his report to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance noted that the Church of Scientology provided “very detailed documentation” of numerous different types of discrimination, including “information programmes for teachers, parents, students, police officers, judges, procurators, prison staff, health workers, and chambers of commerce and industry and for the public in general, providing... incorrect and unscientific information, all of its unfavorable to the Church of Scientology and its members, and creating a climate of intolerance reflected in particular in —physical and verbal harassment of Scientologists’ children in schools, and indeed their expulsion, even from kindergarten—.” (emphasis added).
GERMAN GOVERNMENT: “In September 1997, the Illinois Supreme Court found there was evidence enough to allege that Scientology had driven the Cult Awareness Network into bankruptcy by filing 21 lawsuits in a 17-month period.”
FACT: The Cult Awareness Network (CAN) declared bankruptcy voluntarily following a six day trial in which a jury found it liable for civil rights violations and negligence in the forcible, attempted deprogramming of a Pentecostal Christian. The jury awarded the deprogramming victim $875,000 in compensatory damages and $4 million in punitive damages against CAN and deprogrammer Rick Ross, with 10% of the negligence liability and $1m in punitive damages allocated directly against CAN. In upholding the verdict, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled on April 8, 1998, that “the evidence indicates that it was CAN’s practice to refer people to deprogrammers, including Rick Ross, and that Ross was known to engage in involuntary deprogramming.”
CAN’s appeal of the ruling was turned down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In other words, CAN’s bankruptcy came about through its violations of the First Amendment rights of a Christian.
Continued...
For further information contact:
Leisa Goodman
(323) 960-3500
e-mail: humanrightsofficer@scientology.org