But the false and discriminatory allegation soon became international news. The German news agency DPA sent out a wire story quoting another alleged “expert” who said that Executive Software’s involvement “is of interest to the Catholic church, the other German states, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (German’s domestic security agency) and German industry.”
A government official from the Hamburg Ministry of the Interior fanned the flames by boasting in the press that in Bavaria and Hamburg, the government does not use the services of or products from companies owned by Scientologists. While such a blatantly discriminatory admission would be condemned immediately in this country, in the climate of intolerance created by the German government, it is allowed to pass.
That particular Hamburg official heads an office called “Working Group Against Scientology” which receives $1 million annually from the Hamburg government.
This Hamburg government office, along with their counterparts from the Ministry of the Interior, created the so-called “sect filter” which forbids employment or contractual relations with individuals participating in the Church of Scientology. I have even seen a sect filter which makes a course in business training conditional on an individual declaring that he is not a member of a “sect or free church.” Employment applications and contracts typically include a “sect filter” clause requiting one to explicitly declare that he is not affiliated with my religion. And to make sure that government officials can identify and thereby actively practice discrimination against Scientologists, private businesses owned by members of my Church are entered into the German government’s computers with a chillingly evocative “S” notation. The extent and pervasiveness of governmental religious discrimination in Germany may be gauged by the decision of a U.S. federal immigration court to grant asylum to a German Scientologist on the grounds that she would face religious persecution if she had to return to Germany.
Continued
For more information on Scientology, click here.
| Previous | Glossary | Contents | Next |
| Your View | Related Sites | Home page |