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Leisa Goodman
E-MAIL: publicrelations@scientology.org
(323) 960-3500
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 27, 2001
SCIENTOLOGISTS TO SEEK CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION
CRITICIZING FRANCE AND GERMANY FOR RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION
LOS ANGELES: Following the release of the State Department’s Annual Human Rights Report, the Church of Scientology will seek a congressional resolution condemning the German and French governments for religious discrimination.
The State Department accuses the German government of threatening a Berlin hotel owner with “several hundred thousand dollars” of lost business if he rented rooms to the Church of Scientology. The French government is blasted for creating a climate “of intolerance and bias against minority religions.”
“The report shows that blacklisting, destruction of one’s career, and intimidation of one’s family are facts of life for religious believers in France and Germany today,” said Rev. Heber Jentzsch, President of the Church of Scientology International.
German officials fabricated concerns about Microsoft’s Windows 2000, solely because one of its components is produced by a company owned by a Scientologist. Private firms in Germany cite government action “as a justification for discrimination” and German officials target minority Christian groups, the report finds.
In France, the president of a parliamentary report on “sects” made high-profile accusations in the media about one group, but a court found that “existing evidence did not warrant even a serious inquiry into their activities,” the report states. The official, a French MP, was convicted for defamation and the methods of the commission condemned.
Rev. Jentzsch said that Scientologists and members of other minority religions will seek congressional censure of French and German violations of international human rights law. Last October, the House International Relations Committee unanimously passed a Resolution targeting France, Germany, Belgium and Austria for religious intolerance. Congress ended before the full House could vote on the legislation.
Scientology was founded by writer, philosopher and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard. The Church of Scientology now ministers to a congregation of millions in more than 145 countries.
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