Simply put, I come here today not to complain of just a trade embargo or religious discrimination, but to alert your attention to a combination of the two — a trade embargo justified on the grounds of government-mandated religious discrimination.
Let me give you the background. In December, 1999, the German computer magazine C’T published an article entitled “Windows 2000 In Danger of Being Banned.” The article discussed a proposed boycott of Microsoft Corporation’s Windows 2000 operating system, on the grounds that I, as owner and CEO of Executive Software, am a Scientologist. The article came out a few weeks before the release of Windows 2000 in February and was apparently tuned to interfere with the release of Windows 2000 in Germany.
It was alleged in the C’T article that the Church of Scientology had made a “brilliant move” to introduce a computer program into practically every desk in companies, government offices and church institutions. The article went on to insinuate that the computer program had a hidden purpose to filch information from its German customers. These insinuations are completely false and easily shown to be so. It is patently incredible that even a semi-competent software engineer could believe such things. But, of course, the software itself was not the real reason for the attack. It was being targeted solely because of my religious affiliation.
The article even conceded that C’T experts had examined the program and found no evidence of any peculiarities, but this led the magazine to conclude (naturally) that the Americans were so clever that the hidden purpose could be carded out without the German experts being able to detect it!
In response to the story, a Microsoft spokesman defended the company’s choice of the program and stated that Microsoft does not refuse to do business with anybody based on their religion, race, or other personal characteristics. Microsoft has consistently maintained this position of nondiscrimination.
Continued
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