Germany ends decades-long surveillance of the Church of Scientology
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The Church of Scientology is heralding what it says is the end of Germany’s open antagonism toward the religion, its members and its leadership: a campaign that included widespread surveillance and even an effort to ban Scientology outright.
In an official statement issued May 15, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, known as the BfV, said Scientology will no longer be listed as a standalone, nationwide intelligence target.
The explanation, as news outlet Der Spiegel reported, is that the BfV believes the church has lost relevance at the federal level in recent years and that the agency would rather focus its attention on other intelligence priorities, including terror cells and cyberattacks.
“The threat never existed,” church officials said in a statement. “What did exist was thirty years of institutionalized discrimination directed at a peaceful minority religion and the people who practiced it.”
While Scientology has operated in Germany since the 1970s, it is not formally recognized as a religion. German government officials have instead characterized it as a predatory, commercial enterprise that targets vulnerable people and warranted its monitoring.
Its members are barred from membership in some political parties, and members have long complained of discrimination in social settings and in business. Surveillance of Scientologists began in the 1990s, shortly after German reunification.
In 1997, the U.S. State Department issued a human rights report on Germany warning that artists and businesses connected to the Church of Scientology “may face boycotts and discrimination, sometimes with government approval.” Actions targeted notable Scientology members including Tom Cruise, John Travolta and the late jazz musician Chick Corea.
“Scientologists in Germany lost jobs, careers and business opportunities because of their faith. Families were stigmatized,” the church’s statement continued. “Today, that surveillance ends exactly where it always should have ended, with the complete failure of the allegations on which it was built.”
Scientology was founded by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard in the 1950s and has a heavy presence in the Los Angeles area, particularly Hollywood. It teaches that people can achieve spiritual freedom through a set of beliefs and practices developed by Hubbard.
Critics, beyond the German government, have described the organization as an exploitative “cult” that exerts control over its followers and aggressively targets dissenters.
Scientologists reject this characterization.
“Scientology is unique in that it does not force anyone to ‘believe’ anything,” the church states on it’s website. “Rather, Scientology maintains every individual should think for themselves. In Scientology, what is true for the individual is only what they have observed personally and know is true for them.”
Content retrieved from: https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/germany-ends-scientology-surveillance/.
