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FRANCE Edited articles on the position of "new" or "non-traditional" religions in France. |
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France weighs anti-cult law; religious groups are alarmed
by Bert Roughton Jr. ("Austin American-Statesman," January 27, 2001)
PARIS -- French lawmakers next week are expected to approve a new anti-cult law that mainstream church and civil liberties advocates worry will diminish religious freedom in France and discourage traditional evangelism.
The law's opponents say it could, at most, make criminals of Southern Baptist or Mormon missionaries who pursue converts too aggressively and, at least, chill the environment for handing out religious tracts and knocking on French doors with faith-laden messages.
The proposal would make it a crime for religious groups to engage in "mental manipulation," which the bill's critics consider vague and open to perilous interpretations. The bill would authorize judges to legally dissolve religious organizations whose leaders are convicted of two or more criminal offenses. It would also ban sects from advertising and prohibit them from opening missions or soliciting members near schools, hospitals or retirement homes.
"This is a very dangerous piece of legislation," said Joseph Grieboski, president of the Washington-based interfaith Institute on Religion and Foreign Policy. "It's also our concern that this legislation is not just an infringement on religious freedoms in France. It sets a very bad model in places like Eastern Europe and Russia when a state like France, a liberal, democratic bastion, (seeks) to infringe on the free expression of religious belief."
A need for protection
Its supporters say the law is a reasoned approach for a government trying to protect its citizens from unscrupulous organizations that prey on emotional needs.
Catherine Picard, a lawmaker and one of the bill's authors, has called existing French law "inadequate to deal with increasingly sophisticated and manipulative groups."
Picard said that judges must be given better tools to combat dangerous cults and sects. "The law is a response to the evolution of society and the growing importance that sects have in it," she said.
The French Senate is expected to vote on the proposal next week, with final approval by the National Assembly expected soon after.
The law could expose religious groups, particularly fledgling or unpopular ones, to prosecution by a disenchanted member who claims to have been improperly influenced by someone in the group, opponents say. They also worry about provisions that could allow people to bring criminal charges against faith healers and others who promise but fail to deliver physical benefits through the acceptance of religious belief. And they fear that it would be possible for a judge to disband a religious organization if its leaders were convicted of such minor crimes as passing a bad check.
In Paris, American preachers are uncertain about the law's practical implications. In general, the measure isn't thought to pose an immediate threat to evangelical activities, but it does signal a need to be wary.
"My understanding of the law is that in the wrong situation with the wrong magistrate, people could get in trouble for normal evangelism," said the Rev. Scott Stearman, pastor of the Emmanuel Baptist Church in the Paris suburb of Rueil-Malmaison.
Stearman thinks Christians in the United States have perhaps exaggerated the threats to religious freedom in France. "Some of this could be explained by the Christian rumor mill and its penchant for expanding things like this beyond reality," he said. "There is religious freedom in France. In fact, we get more support from the local authorities than we could have ever expected in America."
But the proposal does bother him. "I do have problems with the government taking an action like this," he said. "As an American, I find that troubling."
A matter of restriction
Morris Chapman, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee, has expressed concerns that the proposal could affect evangelists in France. "It is particularly disheartening that the selfless act of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ could be equated to `mental manipulation' of the public," he said in a statement last summer.
Opponents are particularly uncomfortable with a government report that lists 173 groups as dangerous cults. The list includes Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and the Church of Scientology. (Rumors to the contrary, it doesn't include the Southern Baptist Convention.)
"This places these 173 groups on the list in a position to be direct targets of the government," Grieboski said. "We're concerned about their ability to exercise their religious freedom, but we're also worried about the long-term extrapolation that could also target more mainstream groups."
The Scientologists are waging perhaps the most aggressive campaign against the law. Scientology fell foul of French authorities in the 1990s when some of its members were accused of brainwashing vulnerable people and extorting money from them.
The law also has significant mainstream opposition, including French leaders among the Protestant, Catholic and Jewish faiths.
Differing perspectives
But pressure has mounted on French lawmakers to address concerns about some religious groups since 1995, when 16 members of the Order of the Solar Temple died in a murder-suicide in France.
Recent polls suggest that the French are happy to have their government clamp down on minority religious groups perceived as dangerous. One poll found that 73 percent think sects are a danger to democracy, and 86 percent favor government bans on groups determined to be dangerous.
At the heart of the conflict between French and U.S. views on the issue is a deep political and cultural divide.
While the U.S. Constitution shields religious groups in America, there is no such provision in France. French leaders argue that regulating religion is a legitimate function of government.
Historically Roman Catholic, France has been a secular country since 1905. Attitudes about religion have hardened over the decades. The number of practicing Catholics has plummeted to the point that attendance at church is not part of normal life, particularly in cities.
Many people in France don't understand the role of religion in the United States or why Americans follow so many varieties of religion. They also are deeply suspicious of evangelical movements.
Alain Vivien, head of France's anti-cult agency, expressed amazement at the American system in a recent interview with Agence France Presse.
"In the United States, freedoms are crazy," he said. "In the name of the First Amendment of the Constitution, which forbids legislation on religious matters, one can say and do anything."
Jean-Arnold de Clermont, president of the French Protestant Federation, worries that American protests might backfire and stir French lawmakers to embrace the law as an act of national pride. "It makes things very complicated for us," he said.
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French Legislation Threatens Religious Freedom
by Michael Ireland ("ASSIST Communications," January 23, 2001)
New Malden, Surrey, England (January 23, 2001) -- As French senators prepare for a vote on legislation that will limit religious liberty in France, a human rights organization has called on them to remember France's commitments under the European Convention on Human Rights, the OSCE and the United Nations.
According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) the "Anti-sect Law," passed in June 2000 in France's National Assembly, will be presented to the French Senate for a vote on January 25.
CSW says that among other restrictions the bill, which never actually defines the term "sect," would impose a sentence of up to five years detention and a fine of up to five million francs for causing a "state of subjection" either physical or psychological, through the "exercise of serious and repeated pressures or techniques aimed at altering the capacity of judgment."
A press release from CSW states: "The vagueness of the clause leaves it open to abuse and has been criticized repeatedly by a number of international human rights organizations and political bodies."
The release says: "Representatives of a wide assortment of religious groups in France have expressed fear that if this bill is passed it will encourage and even enable discrimination on the basis of religious faith."
It continues: "Their fears are well-founded, as after the Inter-ministerial Mission for the Battle Against Sects published a list of 173 identifiable 'sects' (including such mainstream Christian groups as the Baptists and Youth With a Mission), members of the listed groups reported increased discrimination and harassment. The current bill will allow 'anyone having an interest' to initiate civil proceedings to dissolve an organization, putting an effective tool into the hands of any biased individual or group to attack or harass a particular religious group."
In addition, says CSW, "The bill includes a provision which will broaden the term 'corporate entity' to include entities that are legally distinct but 'who through their name or their statutes pursue the same purpose and are united by common interests.'
"This would in effect give judges the right to dissolve an entire organization based on a case brought against a separate group which was deemed to have 'common interests,'" said a CSW spokesman.
The spokesman added: "The inherent subjectivity and sweeping effects of such a law would pose a severe threat to all legitimate religious organization operating in France."
CSW says the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly has begun an investigation on the issue of religious discrimination in France under the oversight of Turkish Member of Parliament, Mr. Akcali, a member of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Council of Europe.
"Whilst CSW commends this action by the Council of Europe," says CSW's Anna Lee Stangl, "it is our hope that on January 25 the French senators defeat this bill and encourage the National Assembly to seek a path of religious tolerance and diversity, upholding France's own fundamental principles of 'Liberte, Egalite, and Fraternite' for all, regardless of their choice of faith."
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'Liberty' in French -- Cults have a tough time with the law Nevertheless the number of their adherents is growing
by Johannes Wetzel ("Berliner Zeitung," January 10, 2001)
http://www.berlinonline.de
It is obvious to anyone who reads what's on a a one-frank piece that liberty is one of the fundamental values of the French Republic. But what does the word mean? "Are there two different definitions of liberty, one inspired by the American and one French?" the French Interministerial Commission to Combat Sects (MILS) is now asking, defiantly answering its own question with "yes." While the American legislature in 1791 left all doors wide open to sects, the French Declaration for Human and Citizens Rights of 1789 was more cautious: the practice of freedom of religion and of opinion may not upset public order.
Behind this limitation is not only France's familiar disinclination against any form of an Anglo-Saxon flavored sense of community, but mainly the informed and Jacobian resistance against presumed obscurism. The anti-clerical movement of the 18th and 19th century led in 1905 to the separation of Church and State. France recently dogmatically insisted again on the principle of "laicism" and had the reference to "religious legacy" deleted from the preamble of the European Charta of Basic Values. That was protested by Jacques Delors, former IMF President Michel Camdessus, EU Commissar Michel Barnier, Strassburg mayor Catherine Trautmann, philosopher Paul Ricoeur and political scientist ReneRemond. They want to "open the spiritual and humanist contribution of religion" in the realm of laicism.
Unfortunately the defense of intelligence and free will is occasionally led with a crusade of intolerance. More than just factually dangerous sects are being combatted. This year's "sect report" also skewers the "galaxy of Anthroposophy." Apparently even psychotherapy is part of the commission's area of jurisdiction. It criticizes, in foreign politics, that more sects are disguising themselves as "non-governmental offices," that in the "World Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders" they received the approval of UN General Secretary Kofi Annan, and were so clumsy as to hold their meeting in the "luxurious New York Waldorf Hotel." Finally the sect commission did not tolerate criticism of the French "combatting sects" as exercised by the U.S. State Department's report on religious freedom around the world.
France recently improved its legal anti-sect arsenal. Since 1985, when an official report about "Sects in France" appeared for the first time, its quantity and range has grown considerably. About 170 sects today are said to include about 160,000 at least part-time adepts. Not least of all, the Scientologists have been making headlines as investigation files disappear from the Paris Palace of Justice without a trace. The adherents of Mandarom are said to have illegally put up a statue to honor the founder of their sect. Also in France several years ago adherents of the Order of the Solar Temple more or less committed suicide.
But the commission appears to have overestimated the dangerousness of the Anthroposophists. Because Anthroposophists operate hospitals, schools and banks, commission member fear a "global strategy" - possibly a world conspiracy. Besides that they have misgivings about Steiner's writings possibly containing "elitist" and even criminally relevant "racist" ideology. According to their material on Steiner's writings anyway, they are not surprised at the supposed complaints about the French Waldorf schools. As the French Education Ministry has found, the Waldorf school teachers being hired not for their intellectual or academic qualifications, but for their life-style, would be entirely what Steiner meant. And because Steiner did not get to promoting intellectual abilities until later, the students were said to suffer under insufficient knowledge. The Waldorf style of academics was said to be more important for creating provisions for a "new human being." Especially upsetting was the monitoring of eurythmics, a "simplistic imitation of music." Finally it was said that the schools want to escape state control and did not adequately meet the duty for school inoculations.
As concerns anthroposophic medicine, the French Health Ministry unequivocally stated in September of this year [sic] that it was "inspired by mystic and esoteric traditions of Eastern origin" and "not techniques acknowledged as medicine." "We are looking at a movement which 'presents itself as spiritual science and whose diverse enterprises are' supported by an autonomous or even independent bank entity," the commission summed up its journey through the "anthroposophic galaxy." So much independence is suspicious: "watchfulness" and "oversight" were said to be appropriate because at least "public opinion" ascribed them the "character of a sect."
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Comment from Joe Cisar Is the US State Department a cult mouthpiece? As to a particular statement in the above article, regardless of how many definitions of sects there are and where they come from, people do not "more or less commit suicide." Either they do or they don't. But when you deal with cults, you quickly learn that most things are defined in exactly two ways, the bad and the good.
For instance, there are two different aspects of sects: the undesirable one - which is combatted - and the desirable aspect which a democratic plurality needs to exist. This duality is exploited by undesirable sects in their crusade to do what they do best: create and exploit public misunderstanding.
The mere presence of the French "Interministerial Commission to Combat Sects" has been used by cults as an example of intolerance in France. For example, Scientology President Heber Jentzsch stated:
"France is unique among European countries in establishing a government panel specifically to foster intolerance of religious groups, unabashedly calling it the Interministerial Mission to Combat Sects." http://www.scientology.org.mt/p_jpg/scnnews/press/eng/2000/21042000.htm
Yet it is obvious to any person not of bad faith that this commission was established to fight cults of the anti-social kind. This intentional misunderstanding to create anti-French sentiment is driven by a destructive cult's "anything is fair so long as I win" mentality.
On the American side of the Atlantic, cults (guess which kind) and their lobbyists constantly use the U.S. State Department's report on "religious freedom" as factual evidence that the U.S. State Department approves or disapproves of any particular country's handling of any particular cult.
I wondered why the United States, which by its own Constitution cannot make laws about religion inside the United States, made a law by which the United States employs the equivalent of a world religion commissioner. Naturally it is unconstitutional to have a religion commissioner inside the United States, so the jurisdiction of the United States religion commissioner covers the entire world - except the United States. Here's what I got back from one of the sponsors of the bill, the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, Senator Arlen Specter in a letter dated September 12, 2000:
"The great untold human rights tragedy of this decade is that Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, Jews and other religious minorities are being persecuted in great numbers around the world. Killings, rape, imprisonment, torture and abduction are commonplace for many religious believers in many countries. In response to such acts of persecution, I introduced the 'Freedom from Religious Persecution Act' (S. 772) on May 21, 1997, along with Senators Paul Coverdell (R-GA) and Tim Hutchinson (R-AR). ... This legislation created an office in the State Department that will monitor religious persecution abroad and report its findings to Congress. ... If a country is found to engage in or tolerate violations of religious freedom, the President is to impose at least one of a number of listed measures. ... In addition, the Secretary of State ... prepares each year a report on the status of religious freedom in each foreign country. This law sends a clear message to world leaders and governments that the United States will no longer tolerate regimes that murder, imprison, torture or persecute people of faith.
Look on the report on France and find references to murder, rape, imprisonment and torture - http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/irf/irf_rpt/irf_france.html. Those words appear nowhere on that page, which the exception of an incident which happened over 50 years ago. Look at what is actually being reported upon. Among other things, there is a description of the French democratic government discussion about the dangerous aspects of sects, something which the USA currently avoids. The report describes not persecution, but the French "attitude" and whether it is "amicable." The report informs us that "many Catholics do not practice their faith actively."
The U.S. law was enacted to prevent religion-based rape, torture and murder. However, this law has been perverted for the purposes of creating two separate flavors of government discussion - one type of which cults approve and the other which amounts to an actionable offense reportable to the US State Department. So whenever cults have problems getting tax exemption and other special privileges, they write up their gripes and give them to the State Department which publishes them in an official US report about the heinous crimes of religion-based murder, rape, imprisonment and torture. The U.S. State Department has even reported the action of placing flyers under windshield wipers of parked cars as "harassment" from which "police protection" was needed by Scientologists (http://cisar.org/000906b.htm and http://www.awadalla.at/el/anzeige.html). Not only is the State Department failing to provide accurate information, it is doing a worse job than the media ever did on cults, especially when you take into account that the State Department, unlike a newspaper, has no incentive to ever issue a correction on what it reports.
This official misrepresentation is misused by destructive cults and their lobbyists to create a livelihood based on exploitation and misunderstanding.
Should Cults be combatted? A complaint I have often seen about European sect commissions is that sects cannot be defined. The implied conclusion is that if you cannot define something, then you can do nothing about it. That part is not stressed as it hits too close to home to be comfortable about discussing it.
Not everything in the world can be defined, not even in the physical world. For instance, last I heard, electricians and chemists cannot agree on whether electricity flows from negative to positive or vice versa. That certainly does not imply that electricity cannot be controlled.
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What exactly is electricity? It is an invisible "force." You could say the same thing about cults. Joan Woods obviously was responding to an invisible force in throwing the case against Scientology.
From the St. Petersburg Times of January 11, 2001:
Former Pasco-Pinellas Medical Examiner Joan Wood is refusing to respond to subpoenas to give a deposition considered critical to the defense in a murder case.
Wood, who retired Sept. 30 after she was harshly criticized for her role in the collapse of the high-profile criminal case against the Church of Scientology, skipped a Nov. 1 deposition at which she was to testify about the suspicious death of a 7-month-old girl.
Wood, 56, served as the circuit's chief medical examiner for 18 years, but the end of her career was tarnished by the case of Scientologist Lisa McPherson, who died in 1995 after 17 days in the care of church staffers.
Wood originally concluded that the 36-year-old McPherson died from a blood clot caused by "bed rest and severe dehydration." Wood's finding prompted prosecutors to file two felony charges against the Church of Scientology: abuse of a disabled adult and practicing medicine without a license.
But last year, Wood changed her mind, concluding that McPherson's death was an accident. As a result, prosecutors dropped the charges against the church and, in a strongly worded memo, blamed Wood for botching the case.
"The actions and testimony of Dr. Wood, a forensic witness essential to the state's case, has so muddled the equities and underlying facts in this case, however, that it has undermined what began as a strong legal position," the memo said.
In June, Wood abruptly announced her resignation, saying in a letter to Gov. Jeb Bush that "the stress and physical toll have become more than I can handle."
What's not mentioned in the above article is that Wood changed her mind after years of pressure from Scientology, whose tactics included refusing to submit vital evidence for more than a year.
There are other visible signs of the invisible forces exercised by cults. The mass "suicides" are one example. The question with cult suicides is whether they are really suicides. Even though the deaths were ultimately caused by the cult members, the cult members were really guilty of nothing else than practicing their "religious faith." Isn't that also what the Nazis were practicing in pursuing their policy of extermination?
Just because you cannot define something does not rule out controlling it. And it especially does not rule out critical discussion from a group, such as the French Interministerial Commission to Combat Sects, whose mission is to control a force whose policy of invisibility and redefinition is used to elude the law.
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French Anti-Cult Law: 'Senators hear objections to the offence of 'mental manipulation'
("Le Monde", November 10, 2000 - English translation)
For the first time, the representatives of the four major religions in France were heard in a parliamentary setting on the question of sects. In the Senate, Pastor Jean-Arnold de Clermont, President of the Protestant Union, Jean Vernette delegate of the Catholic Episcopate, Joseph Sitruk, Grand Rabbi of France, and Dalil Boubakeur, vice-chancellor of the Mosque of Paris, were auditioned, on Wednesday, November 8th, by the Law commission, before the examination in second reading, at the beginning of January, of the proposed bill on the fight against the "groups of a sectarian nature". Adopted unanimously by the National Assembly, on June 22nd, this text is likely to be significantly modified following reservations expressed by Elisabeth Guigou, when she was still Minister of Justice, by the National Consultative Commission of Human Rights and by the representatives of great religions. Nicolas About (UDF, Yvelines), rapporteur for the Law Commission of the Senate, had pushed through a vote, in the first reading of a law proposal planning the dissolution - on the basis of a 1936 text concerning militias - of groups "constituting a risk public order and a major danger for the human person". The proposition had been strengthened, at the National Assembly, by Catherine Picard (PS, Eure), who had added to it the creation of an offence of "mental manipulation" explicitly targeting sects. Before the Law Commission of the Senate, the religious representatives renewed their criticisms on this proposition. Whilst they considered perfectly legitimate the fight against all the sectarian offences they also considered the current legal arsenal sufficient to prevent and to repress them. They warned the senators against the risks of excessive interpretation that could be introduced by the notion of "mental manipulation", considering this as "imprecise" and "dangerous". Even if great religions do not feel targeted today, one cannot exclude, declared Mgr. Vernette, that a religious congregation might be harassed one day due to practices such as night-prayer or fasting. Pastor de Clermont also regretted the negative drift in the current climate of the "fight" against sects, quoting an "evangelical" minister who had recently been rejected from a parents' association. The Jew, Moslem, Catholic and Protestant representatives expressed that they were for the creation of an independent and multi-disciplinary "observatory" - similar to the National Committee of Ethics - able to hear victims but also the suspected groups designated as sects. This independent Observatory - the one created by Alain Juppe in 1996, falls under the authority of the Prime Minister - would correspond to the wishes of the Council of Europe, concerned about the creation in France of the Interministerial Mission to Fight Against Cults chaired by the former socialist Minister Alain Vivien. Belgium, Switzerland, England and Italy have independent Observatories. In their responses, the Senators underlined their intention to fight firmly against sectarian offences and their opposition to "any thought police". Mr About will meet Mrs Picard "to improve", the private bill, he said to Le Monde, " by saving the spirit of the National Assembly, but by amending it so that it is no longer questionable for the religious groups ". Magistrates and the Consultative Committee on Human Rights would like to transform the offence of mental manipulation into the broader offence of "placing someone in a state of weakness", which already partially exists in the Penal code. Concerning the dissolution of groups of a sectarian nature, the authors of the proposition are also thinking about another formulation. The religious representatives said that the dissolution by a judge, voted by the National Assembly, should be replaced with an administrative dissolution under the control of the Council of State, applicable to any criminal group, whatever it may be. This proposition was favourably welcomed by Mr About.
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Thousands protest France's attitude toward Scientology
(AP, October 28, 2000)
PARIS (AP) Thousands joined actress Kirstie Alley and singer Isaac
Hayes in a protest against the French government attitude toward the Los
Angeles-based Church of Scientology.
After the rally in the city center, the international group of
protesters moved elsewhere for a day of speeches and concerts.
Scientology has long had a contentious relationship with France and
figures on a list of 178 groups being monitored to limit so-called cult
activities. Scientology is seeking recognition as a legitimate religion in
Europe.
"Our freedom of thought is under siege," said Alley.
Hayes asked, "If it's religion today, what will it be tomorrow?"
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Scientologists Fight French Religious Intolerance
(Panafrican News Agency, October 23, 2000)
Scientologists, including a number of South Africans, Monday reacted angrily to the French Government's perceived religious intolerance.
France has blacklisted 173 religions and is seeking to pass a bill that will look to dissolve sects that are considered undesirable. The list includes Baptists, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientologists and Seventh-Day Adventists.
This bill is expected to come before the French Senate at the end of October. Scientologists as well as an array of other religious denominations in Paris Monday held a huge march and rally in protest of this bill.
A number of South African Scientologists who are outraged at the bill flew to France
to lend their voices to the protest.
The International Relations Committee of the US House of Representatives early October passed unanimously a strong1y- worded resolution calling on President Bill Clinton to raise the issue of violations of religious liberty with the leaders of France, Germany, Austria and Belgium.
The Church of Scientology was recognised as a religion in South Africa in March when 12 of its ministers were granted the right to perform legal marriages.
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French judge moved off 'missing files' Scientology case
(AFP, October 19, 2000)
The Appeal Court in Paris has ordered the judge in a long-running investigation into the Scientology movement to be pulled off the case, two years after important files in the case vanished from court.
Wednesday's court ruling ordered Judge Marie-Paule Moracchini off the case, which unites 15 different plaintiffs and includes charges of fraud and the illegal exercise of medicine.
She will be replaced by Judge Philippe Courroye.
The scandal broke in June 1998, when court officials discovered that one and a half volumes of the case's 10-volume dossier had gone missing.
The discovery was only made after a lawyer for one of the plaintiffs had successfully pushed for a hearing to try and get the case to court.
Moracchini insists that the file was complete when she transferred it out of her office for the hearing. But she had failed to keep a complete copy, as she is obliged to.
In the row that followed, prosecutors in the case tried to have Moracchini taken off the case, while lawyers for Scientology tried to have the case thrown out.
Judges denied both applications in a ruling in September, 1999.
In January, a French court fined the French state 20,000 francs (3,100 euros, 2,600 dollars) and ordered damages to be paid to two of the plaintiffs because of the disappearance of the documents.
President of the court Marie-Claude Domb said the error could not be blamed on Moracchini, but described the incident as an "inexcusable mistake" that was down to the failure to keep properly recorded copies.
At the time, the Church of Scientology demanded "public apologies from political figures who challenged the integrity of Scientologists in the matter of the missing papers."
A month later, it denounced a government report describing the Church of Scientology as a dangerous organization and calling for its dissolution.
Scientology spokeswoman Daniele Gounord called it a "slap-dash Mickey Mouse job in which facts are pulled out of a hat."
She added: "With this report, France has joined the ranks of banana republics."
Then in June, Justice Minister Elizabeth Guigou announced she was opening an inquiry after receiving the report of an internal investigation on the affair. It had concluded: "The most probable hypothesis is that the files disappeared in a fraudulent fashion."
Moracchini herself recently asked to be taken off the case, saying that the investigation into her handling of it was aimed a "destabilising" her.
The affair comes against the background of a controversial anti-cult bill that is going through the French parliament, which has been fiercely attacked by human rights groups and religious leaders.
The Church of Scientology spokesman in France Jean Dupuis has condemned the bill as a "fascist exercise worthy of a totalitarian state."
Scientology is not recognised as a religion in France, where it is classified as a cult. It believes it is a principal target of the planned legislation.
In November last year, five French Scientologists were found guilty of fraud and attempted fraud. One of them was sentenced to six months in prison and fined 100,000 francs (16,000 dollars) for swindling people on behalf of the movement.
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Christian Leaders Denounce Attacks
by Pamela Sampson (Associated Press, October 19, 2000)
PARIS (AP) - Christian religious leaders denounced the recent attacks on synagogues and admonished the French people Wednesday for tolerating violence against Jews and their houses of worship.
A statement by leaders of France's Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox churches strongly condemned the anti-Jewish violence in France that began shortly after Israeli-Palestinian fighting broke out in late September.
No one has been seriously injured. But more than 80 separate incidents have been reported this month - mostly Molotov cocktails and other incendiary devices thrown at synagogues.
The anti-Jewish acts have a particular resonance in France, where 76,000 Jews were sent to their deaths during the Holocaust.
In their statement, the Christian religious leaders indicated the French should always be mindful of history and condemn the current anti-Jewish violence.
``France is one of the rare countries where these acts are taking place,'' the statement said. ``How could the French tolerate this? Do the French have such a short memories?''
The statement was signed by the Rev. Jean-Arnold de Clermont, president of the Protestant Federation of France; Monsignor Louis-Marie Bille, president of the Conference of French Bishops; and Monsignor Jeremie, president of the Assembly of Orthodox Bishops of France.
Also Wednesday, a letter signed by 14 Jewish youth associations and sent to President Jacques Chirac said Jewish families and organizations have reported a sharp increase in harassment at school, at work, and on the street in the last two weeks.
``We are worried by the rise in these acts - unprecedented since the second World War,'' the letter said.
Interior Minister Daniel Vaillant said Monday that a ``discreet'' but powerful police presence - ``four times more than in 1999'' - now guarded synagogues and other buildings at risk.
The Sunday paper Le Journal du Dimanche said that Vaillant, the interior minister, had received a report from the French intelligence services attributing the attacks to youths, usually Muslim, but prompted more by media attention than by anti-Semitism.
Dalil Boubakeur, the head of the Mosque of Paris, said the Muslim community in France did not harbor a spirit of aggression against the Jewish community.
He emphasized that the attacks ``are not the work of the (Muslim) community.''
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Arson at Synagogue in France
(AP, October 13, 2000)
TOULON, France (AP) - The door of a synagogue was doused with gasoline and set on fire in southern France, police said Thursday, in the latest in a series of anti-Jewish attacks across the country.
The flames were quickly contained Wednesday evening and damage to the synagogue in La Seyne-sur-Mer in the Var region was minimal, police said.
The incident brings to 22 the number of anti-Semitic incidents since the start of the month. On Tuesday night, a synagogue in Trappes outside Paris was all but destroyed by fire.
The attacks are believed linked to the crisis in the Middle East.
Officials at a Jewish school in Paris said Thursday that they were filing a complaint after students were pelted with objects and showered with insults as they left school Wednesday, French radio reported.
Security was reinforced around the school, which has 800 students of all ages.
Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious leaders, meeting Thursday in Marseille, called for calm.
``Confrontation here does nothing to help solve the problem of peace'' in the Middle East, Muslim Imam Bachir Dahmani said.
Jewish officials this week published a list of 19 anti-Semitic acts committed since Oct. 1.
``We do not accept the fact that some people are trying to transfer to France events taking place in the Palestinian territories in Israel,'' said the statement by the ``Consistoire,'' the body that governs Jewish religious affairs in Paris.
French President Jacques Chirac condemned the anti-Semitic attacks, saying ``these manifestations of intolerance ... undermine in an inadmissible way the values and traditions'' of France.
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France turns on Mormons over 'baptism of dead'
by John Lichfield ("UK-Indpendent," August 23, 2000)
The French state is growing increasingly anxious about the "baptism of ancestors" by the Mormon Church.
According to an investigation in yesterday's Liberation newspaper, Paris is having second thoughts about a 13-year-old agreement allowing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to microfilm all birth and death registers and parish records in France up to the beginning of the 20th century. Under the agreement, made in 1987, the Mormon church agreed that the records would not be resold and would be used only by its members.
According to their doctrine, Mormons must "baptise the dead", or attempt to baptise their ancestors as far back as they can be traced. In return for allowing Mormon researchers to film the records - anyone is entitled to write them down - the French government received two free copies of each microfilm for its own archives.
But the agreement failed to take account of the internet. The information gathered so far, covering 56 of the 100 French metropolitan and overseas departments, and containing the names of 400 million dead French people, is now available on the Mormon website, familysearch.org.
Similar efforts are under way to trace ancestors in other countries, including Britain (where most parish records can be freely consulted). This drive - officially an effort to "bring together the human family" - has produced a vast archive of three billion names, which are stored in a "genealogical library" contained within cellars hollowed out of a hillside near Salt Lake City.
The information is an invaluable source for genealogists and individuals tracing their roots, whether they are Mormons or not. But the French government fears it is being used, subtly, by the Mormons as a recruitment tool. French civil liberties organisations fear it amounts to a creation of a "secret file" on the human race.
It also raises the odd possibility that many of us are post-facto descended from newly baptised Mormons, without knowing it.
Although not officially admitted, ex-Mormons have spoken of "mass baptisms" of the dead, using names gathered by researchers. In other words, the Mormons are gradually kidnapping all our ancestors.
Christian Euvrard, a spokesman for the Mormons, said it was impossible to know whether "the spirits of the dead" accepted the invitation to become Mormons. He said: "We are not hijacking them. The dead have their own independent referee. Between his death and his resurrection, Christ preached the gospel to the dead.
"Our belief is that men and women can be converted in the spirit world, after their death. For us, there is no one more alive than a dead person."
The posting of the French records on the internet - which implicitly breaks the 1987 agreement - was raised with the Mormon church by the director-general of the French archives, Philippe Belaval, in June. The French Ministry of Culture is to meet civil rights groups next month to hear their complaints.
The French national committee for information and liberty fears that the Mormon file could allow living people to be classified according to their race or religion or enable the health history of their ancestors to be investigated without their knowledge or agreement.
Mr Belaval acknowledged to Liberation that there was a potential problem. "The existence of this website has led us to question the way the state and the [Mormons] agreed to use this information. Why is the church putting this information on the web? For what purpose and in what context?
"The 1987 agreement failed to foresee the coming of new technologies. We cannot remain with the status quo."
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French mayors rebel against gypsy gathering
by Matthew Green (Reuters, August 21, 2000)
PARIS (Reuters) - French mayors have threatened to disrupt a referendum on shortening France's presidential term in protest at an evangelical gathering of tens of thousands of gypsies this weekend.
Branded racists by a major anti-discrimination group, the mayors said they had no choice but to shock the government into action after suffering thefts and threats from troublemakers at similar rallies in previous years.
``They are citizens like me but they do not respect the same laws,'' said Jean Libotte, mayor of the northeastern village of Chambley where the gathering will be held.
``They relieve themselves anywhere and everywhere, shamelessly breaking the law, but we have no way to stop them,'' he told Reuters.
Complaining that authorities failed to provide adequate facilities or policing, Libotte said about 40 mayors from the region have decided to vent their spleen by refusing to make regional arrangements for the Sept. 24 referendum on whether to cut the French presidential term to five years from seven.
Aiming to shorten the French term in line with those in most other Western democracies, the move represents a break with 127 years of tradition in France where the presidency is one of the most powerful offices in the world.
Accusing the mayors of attempting to blackmail the government, France's Movement Against Racism and For Friendship Between Peoples (MRAP) said they were portraying a whole group of people as delinquents.
``It's a racist attitude -- if it had been an influx of tourists it would not have been the same,'' MRAP Secretary General Mouloud Aounit told Reuters.
Libotte said the locals had no argument with the vast majority of Christians who have for the past five years attended the ``Life and Light'' gathering for baptisms and weddings in dandelion-filled meadows around an abandoned air base.
But Libotte said the several hundred residents could no longer tolerate the car thefts, threats of violence and petty stealing by some of the nomadic travelers who arrived from across Europe in trailers and caravans.
``If we had been listened to, if the government had organized things differently, then we would not be in this extreme situation,'' he said.
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Religious Groups Criticize French Sect Proposal
(Religion News Service, August 10, 2000)
(RNS) Three international religious organizations -- Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Advocates International and the World Evangelical Fellowship -- have told a United Nations panel in Geneva that a French legislative proposal to regulate religious sects is a threat to religious liberty.
"Without the freedom to speak and the related freedom to hear ideas there can be no true freedom of belief as protected under international law," a WEF spokeswoman told a UNESCO subcommission earlier this month. "The bill threatens to undermine these rights and to set an unsuitable precedent in the region."
In June, the French National Assembly passed a bill declaring "mental manipulation" a criminal offense, and authorizing courts to disband groups identified as sects. A report released in February by the group that proposed the bill, the Interministerial Mission for the Fight Against Sects, included Scientology and the Unification Church among some 200 groups labeled as sects.
The bill "paves the way for serious abuses of freedom," the WEF spokeswoman said, and has language so vague it "appears to seriously infringe upon the freedomof speech, including speech intended to persuade another person to a particular point of view, whether philosophical, political or religious."
WEF said criminal activity -- "religious, political or otherwise" -- should be prosecuted, but insisted the French government give minority religious groups the same legal protection afforded majority religions.
"We are not advocating protection for groups that cloak illegal activities under the guise of religious freedom," she said. "Time-tested legal methods have protected society from criminal elements in the past and safeguarded minorities that may not be popular but are otherwise law-abiding. These are the tools that should be resorted to rather than blacklisting groups or conducting extra-judicial investigations."
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French Legislation Threatens to Silence Christians
by Rebecca L. Riggs (Concerned Women of America Press Release, July 31, 2000)
Churches closed, Christians silenced, the Word of God forbidden . . .
Yes, this could be a description of a Muslim or Communist nation, but we would not expect that a historically Christian nation like France might soon be robbed of its religious freedom. France is trying to eliminate all forms of "proselytizing." This would eliminate French Christians' freedom to share their beliefs, because lawmakers are considering legislation that could equate this to "mental manipulation." The language of the bill would criminalize those who "exercise serious and repeated pressure on a person in order to create or exploit a state of dependence" (Washington Times, 6/28/00).
Scripture commands Christians to proclaim their faith in Christ. However, under legislation like this, sharing with others would be a crime, punishable with up to two years in prison-or even the banning of an entire religious group. "It is particularly disheartening that the selfless act of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ could be equated to the mental manipulation of the public," said Morris H. Chapman, president and chief executive officer of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee. "God does not desire to control the minds of men, but to change their hearts." (World Net Daily, 2/7/00)
One could assume this is a distant problem, but recent events in Chicago show how closely these ideas are related to American rhetoric. The Southern Baptist Convention had just released a plan for summer evangelism in Chicago when the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago "issued a condemnation of the proselytism, suggesting that despite 'peaceful intentions' it could promote hate crimes against Jews, Muslims, and Hindus" (Washington Times, 7/12/00). We can see that the fear of Christian witness has already reached the United States and is even being promoted by certain religious leaders.
The United States has political reasons on which to base its concern over these laws as well. The legislation is a purposeful denial of religious liberty and freedom of expression. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states in Article 18, "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching practice, worship and observance" (1948).
France's proposed legislation directly contradicts this international standard. The U.S. State Department has expressed concerns to French officials, who have not heeded their protests. The French defend the legislation as necessary protection against cult violence and accuse the United States of excessive protection of cults. (Reuters, 2/7/00)
France's secular government has carefully disguised this new legislation as another step in a long-term attempt to confine the activities of cults and sects. In 1996, after the deaths of more than 20 members of the Solar Temple cult in a ritualistic murder-suicide, legislators felt a need to act. The government created an interministerial working group that began to observe and study groups in question. Then, in 1998, the government replaced the working group with the Interministerial Mission to Battle Against Sects. The U.S. State Department objected, "The fact that it is called a 'battle against' assigns prejudice." (Washington Times, 6/28/00)
And the experiences of Christians in France reflect this new wave of prejudice. The French commission released a list of 173 sects, which includes groups such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and Scientologists, and even traditional denominations like the Southern Baptist Convention. These groups were not given a chance to question their placement on the list, nor were they told what factors contributed to their inclusion. The Mission didn't even establish the definition of a cult or a sect.
Groups on this list have experienced growing intolerance and even overt acts of persecution. Rev. Demeo, pastor of Evangelical Grace Church in Nimes, France, has reported problems such as the tapping of his own phone and vandalism to cars parked at the church school (ReligionToday.com, 7/12/00). The International Helsinki Federation, a human rights organization based in Vienna, claims the list of sects, "resulted in media reports libeling minority religions, the circulation of rumors and false information, and incitement of religious intolerance." (U.S. Dept. of State, 2/25/00)
If the National Assembly adds criminal charges to this manifest prejudice, opponents will have a new and painful weapon against those who share their faith. The Senate, the weaker upper house of the French government, has already passed similar legislation. It allows the government to dissolve organizations and groups with a record of two criminal offenses that are also "regarded as a trouble for public order or a major danger for human personality" (Human Rights Without Borders, International Secretariat, 12/22/99). A Senate statement expressed a belief in freedom, but also said that the legislation "would allow urgent situations to be dealt with without questioning principles of religious freedom and freedom of association (emphasis added)." (HRWF International Secretariat, 12/23/99)
If either version of the proposed legislation is signed into law, it has the potential to prevent all evangelism in France. France has been a demanding champion for liberty and freedom around the world, but now the government is trying to eliminate its citizens' rights to freedom of religion and association. The steps that would be taken to enforce these laws seem all too similar to the steps Communist China has taken against the Falun Gong or to the steps Muslim countries have taken to close their doors to mission work.
It is important that we recognize the State Department's diplomatic endeavors to prevent this type of legislation from becoming law. Express your thanks to our government, and encourage the State Department to continue to urge France to support religious freedom. You can call or write:
Public Information, Rm. 6808
Bureau of Public Affairs
U.S. Department of State
Washington, D.C. 20520-6810
Tel: 202-647-6575
Please be in prayer for Christians in France. Few believers live in this secular nation, and each one has incredible opportunities for impacting the lives of his friends and neighbors. Pray also for those who minister in France today and ask the Lord to protect and allow them to continue to share their faith. Thank God for our own freedom and be reminded of how precious and rare it is. Most importantly, we must exercise our freedom to share the good news of our loving Savior.
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France's Anti-Sect Bill could hinder Religious Freedom Religious Minorities Can be Accused of 'Mental Manipulation'
by Willy Fautre ("Worthy News," July 20, 2000)
BRUSSELS, Belgium (Compass) -- The French National Assembly has adopted Europe's toughest anti-cult legislation, which would create a controversial new crime of "mental manipulation" punishable by a maximum fine of $75,000 and five years imprisonment. Christian leaders are concerned about the bill's possible consequences. ...
The new anti-cult bill dated May 30 and unveiled on June 6 was authored by Member of Parliament Catherine Picard and signed by all French Socialist members of the National Assembly. It went through the Law Commission on June 21 and was voted on the next day in the National Assembly. It must now go back to the Senate for approval of the latest amendments. The Senate approved a less stringent bill last December.
The bill, which contains 11 articles, represents the latest effort to pass repressive legislation against minority religions.
In 1996, the French government published a list of 173 "dangerous sects" that included an evangelical church with connections with Baptists in the United States, as well as Jehovah's Witnesses and Scientologists.
Article 1 of the Assembly bill provides for the dissolution of a corporation or association whose activities "have the goal or effect to create or to exploit the state of mental or physical dependence of people who are participating in its activities" and which infringe on "human rights and fundamental liberties," when this association, or its managers (or de facto managers) have been convicted "several times" for offenses such as fraud, illegal practice of medicine, and several other criminal offenses.
Article 6 bans sects from advertising and prohibits them from opening missions or looking for new members within a perimeter of 200 meters from a hospital, a retirement home, a public or private institution of prevention, curing or caring, or any school for two to 18-year-old students. Violation can bring a sentence of two years imprisonment and a $30,000 fine.
Article 8 punishes any promotion or propaganda by an association or group falling under Article 1 "intended for young people" (age not defined) under penalty of a $7,500 fine, applicable to both individuals and associations.
Article 9 establishes the new crime of "mental manipulation." Mental manipulationis defined as any activity or activities "with the goal or the effect to create or to exploit a state of psychological or physical dependence of people who are participating in the group's activities, to exercise on one of these people repeated and serious pressure and to use patent techniques to change the person's judgement in order to lead this person, against his or her will or not, to an act or an abstention which is heavily prejudicial to him/her." The penalty is three years of imprisonment and a fine of $40,000.
If the victim is considered particularly weak due to his or her age, illness, etc., the penalty is five years imprisonment and a $75,000 fine. ...
Father Jean Vernette, the episcopate's delegate on the cult issue, said in an interview with the daily Catholic paper "La Croix" on June 22, "How can one make, with no mistake, the difference between spiritual guidance and mental manipulation? My fear is that the fight against cults, although necessary, will become, for some people, the vector of a new fight against religion."
Reverend Jean-Arnold de Clermont, president of the French Protestant Federation, said in the June 22 "La Croix," "Where is the limit between the persuasive speech, the passionate sermon and mental manipulation? In fact, all the religious movements must feel threatened by the anti-cult fight. I am still waiting for an accurate definition of mental manipulation. Is it possible that one day I will be suspected too?"
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French 'Cults Law' Draws Fire From Religious Groups
by Justin Torres (CNS, July 14, 2000)
Washington (CNSNews.com) - Under the wording of a proposed French law that would allow religious groups defined as "cults" to be prosecuted and suppressed, groups such as the Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witness and the Southern Baptists, who count among its members the president and vice president of the United States, could find themselves subject to civil action for "mental manipulation" and creating "feelings of dependence."
The law, which has broad support within the French National Assembly and seeks to "paralyze the activities of cult organizations and render them harmless," has drawn fire from religious leaders such as Pope John Paul II and global human rights activists.
The law would allow French courts to dissolve any religious group that has been convicted of harming the "physical or psychical integrity of an individual, ... endangering an individual, ... undermining the freedom of an individual, ... harming personality, ... jeopardizing minors, or ... damaging property."
The law would also make the group liable for civil penalties, restrict its right to advertise or proselytize, curtail the travel freedom of group leaders, and prohibit the groups from owning property, holding services or reincorporating themselves under another name.
Among the groups targeted by the law are 173 blacklisted organizations, including the Church of Scientology, the Unification Church, Seventh Day Adventists, Southern Baptists and fundamentalist Christians, and Catholic groups such as the Jesuits and Opus Dei.
The law is supported by the official French government agency that would make the determination of what groups are or are not a cult. That agency is the Inter-ministerial Mission for the Struggle Against Sects (Mission Interministeriale de Lutte Contre les Sects), chaired by Minister Alain Vivien.
Officials at the French Embassy in Washington declined to comment to CNSNews.com on this story, noting that the law has not yet passed the full Assembly.
According to Bruce Casino, president of the International Coalition for Religious Freedom, the legislation is aimed at small religious groups, but the scope of the language makes it applicable to almost any religion, no matter how well established.
"It would, by its terms, give enormous discretion to French prosecutors and civil litigants to go after religious organizations, political parties, trade unions and other groups that call for contributions or volunteer efforts from members," Casino said.
Casino, who has represented the Unification Church in several legal matters, was participating in a panel discussion in Washington Thursday organized by the Institute on Religion and Public Policy.
As an example, Casino cited the Protestant practice of tithing. Under the terms of the French "cults law," tithing could be considered damaging to property interests and hence make churches liable to criminal and civil prosecution.
John Graz, the Secretary General of the International Religious Liberty Association and a Seventh Day Adventist, said the law represented an attack against all religions, not just small ones, new ones, or cults.
"The real target of this law is religion in general," said Graz. "It's na\'efve to think that only the listed groups are in danger."
The feeling that the law's vagueness makes it a danger to any religious organization has galvanized mainline churches in France to oppose it. Included in the opposition are Roman Catholic bishops, leaders of the largest church in France.
In fact, Pope John Paul II recently addressed the proposed French law in accepting the credentials of the French ambassador to the Vatican, saying that "religious liberty, in the full sense of the term, is the first human right ... To discriminate religious beliefs, or to discredit one or another form of religious practice, is a form of exclusion contrary to the respect of fundamental human values and will eventually destabilize society, where a certain pluralism of thought and action should exist."
Observers also maintain that the proposed law and denunciations of "cults" have created an oppressive and dangerous atmosphere in a nation that has historically been rife with religious intolerance, including attacks on Protestant communities during the Reformation and the outlawing of religious expression after the French Revolution.
Heber Jentzsch, president of the International Church of Scientology, recounted how Scientologists have been arrested and interrogated throughout France, and businesses operated by Scientologists have been forced into bankruptcy by being "outed" in the local press.
"These are tactics better suited to Stalin's Russia," said Jentzsch.
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Conductor To Testify in Cult Probe
by Thierry Boinet (Associated Press, July 13, 2000)
GRENOBLE, France (AP) - French authorities will put an orchestra conductor on trial for allegedly indoctrinating members of a doomsday cult, many of whom died in a bizarre group killing five years ago, judicial sources said Thursday.
Grenoble magistrate Luc Fontaine decided there was enough evidence to try Michel Tabachnik, who has long been suspected of links to a leader of the Order of the Solar Temple, said the sources, speaking on condition they not be named.
Tabachnik has denied any involvement with the cult, and his lawyer Francis Szpiner said the conductor ``had no intention of playing the role of scapegoat in the case.''
The conductor is charged with attending two meetings of the cult. Tabachnik is charged with association with criminals, a crime in France.
Fontaine also accused Tabachnik of ``writing and distributing a doctrinal teaching aimed at convincing individuals that they belong to an elite with a redemptive mission and at creating a homicidal dynamic,'' the sources said.
Fontaine has been investigating the doomsday cult since the charred remains of 14 people were found in December 1995 laid out in a star formation in a snowy forest clearing in the French Alps.
The bodies of two police officers belonging to the cult were also discovered nearby. The same cult lost 53 members in simultaneous ritual killings in Switzerland and outside Montreal in 1994.
Authorities hope that Tabachnik, a freelance conductor who resides in Paris, can tell them more about the shadowy cult. In his investigation, Fontaine has concluded that those responsible for the 1995 deaths also died at that time.
After the 1995 deaths, Tabachnik was detained for questioning over his links to Joseph Di Mambro, the cult's leader, who died in the 1994 mass killings. Tabachnik allegedly helped Di Mambro found the cult's predecessor, the Golden Way Foundation, in Geneva in the 1980s.
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Sweeping new laws on sects 'could be abused'
by Samantha King ("South China Morning Post", June 29, 2000)
Sweeping new laws are set to hit sects hard in France.
The measures, approved unanimously by Parliament, have raised fears among civil rights organisations and other groups, which believe they could be used to attack them.
The Government's aim is to "paralyse the activity of organisations of a sect nature so that they are no longer able to cause harm". But the implementation of the law is open to abuse, opponents say.
French courts had long complained that existing laws were insufficient to control the growing phenomenon of sects. Despite new measures introduced in 1996 and 1998, only 48 out of 280 cases brought ended in a conviction. A lack of evidence and fear on the part of the victim were the main reasons for the low conviction rate.
Now the new crime of "mental manipulation" is being introduced. The wording goes further than the current "abuse of a vulnerable person", which was difficult to apply to those other than children or the elderly. The charge carries a maximum term of three years behind bars or a fine of 300,000 francs (HK$334,000).
The law also allows the sect itself, rather than just its leaders, to be put on trial, and it could be dissolved by the courts if it is found guilty more than once. Any sect found to be directing marketing towards the young stands to be penalised, and local authorities will have the right to refuse planning permission to sects that have fallen foul of the law.
The move has provoked a strong reaction, mainly because it is difficult to define what is a "sect" and what is a church or an association. The day before the law was passed, 50 associations which fear they may be classed as sects took out a full-page advertisement in the Paris-based International Herald Tribune, denouncing what they described as "liberticide" and saying France would be comparable to China if the law was passed.
The Church of Scientology has devoted a special edition of its newspaper to the issue. In an editorial, it said the law represented a "highway out of democracy". It claimed the only other mental manipulation law ever passed in western Europe was introduced by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to combat communism.
One civil liberties watchdog, Omnium des Libertes, has condemned the law as a "cancer on the face of democracy".
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French proposal targets 'proselytizing'
by Larry Witham ("Washington Times," June 28, 2000)
Religious liberty advocates on Capitol Hill are concerned about a
proposed French law to imprison religious "proselytizers" for up to two years
for "mental manipulation" of the public.
The bill aims to limit the spread of what French officials have called
173 "dangerous sects" in France. These include Jehovah's Witnesses,
Scientologists and Unificationists, among others, but also well-known
evangelistic denominations such as the Baptists.
The proposed crime, which critics say could cover many religious,
advertising and interest groups, is to "exercise serious and repeated
pressure on a person in order to create or exploit a state of dependence."
The bill would allow the French government to shut down a religious group
when two representatives are found guilty of at least one legal infraction.
The legislation must be reconciled with a less stringent bill approved
in the French Senate in December. It then would go to President Jacques
Chirac for approval.
Once approved, French law could proscribe incidents of evangelism even
by the religious faith of President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, who
are both Southern Baptists.
"This is something that we are going to have to watch closely," a senior
State Department official said yesterday. "In a worst-case scenario, it could
turn out to be a nasty piece of legislation."
French Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou last week called the bill "a
significant advance giving a democratic state the legal tool to efficiently
fight groups abusing its core values."
However, she said, the new criminal code could conflict with the
European Convention on Human Rights, and she recommended a "pause" before the
French Senate votes so that human rights and church groups can comment.
T. Jeremy Gunn, who as a member of the U.S. Institute of Peace had
visited France on religious liberty matters, said several French officials
resorted to "ad hominem" attacks on American officials by charging they
belonged to the "sects" in question.
State Department officials who have spoken to French lawmakers say that
many of them describe the legislation Ñ drafted by members of the Socialist
Party Ñ as advocacy work by a charismatic citizen named Jacques Guyard. Mr.
Guyard leads an anti-sect movement and was author of the government's sect
list.
"There is a hope [among some French officials] that this will rise above
personality," the State Department official said.
"Overly aggressive evangelical preaching could be interpreted by some as
mental manipulation," the Rev. N.J. L'Heureux, moderator of the religious
liberty panel of the National Council of Churches, said in an interview.
Mr. L'Heureux, a Methodist, was one of eight witnesses who testified
before the House Committee on International Relations June 14 regarding the
French law and other efforts in Western Europe to curtail new, minority
religious denominations.
The push in Western Europe to form "sect commissions" and legislate
against sects began after the 1994 and 1995 suicides and murders by Solar
Temple members in Canada, Switzerland and France.
Scholars say Western Europe is the most secular part of the world and
many young people are looking at unconventional approaches to find a deeper
meaning to life. For example, in traditionally Catholic France only 8 percent
of the population attends Catholic services, according to a Catholic bishop
cited in the State Department report.
France, Germany, Austria and Belgium set up commissions to list sects,
which in Belgium include even the YWCA. But France is the first to make
so-called religious "mind control" a crime.
The French sect list, published in 1996, was followed by the
establishment in 1998 of a government agency called the Interministerial
Mission to Battle Against Sects. "The fact that it is called a 'battle
against' assigns a prejudice," the State Department official said.
Testimony before the House committee suggested the young democracies of
Russia and Eastern Europe are working out the relationship between majority
and minority religions and might be influenced by the proposed French law.
The European Union so far has rejected the rush to blacklist small
religions. France's former foreign minister, M. Alain Vivien, is chairman of
the French anti-sect commission. According to the House testimony, he was in
Germany, Russia and Poland this month promoting anti-sect work.
In Rome, Pope John Paul II welcomed France's new ambassador to the
Vatican on June 14 by saying "religious liberty, in the full sense of the
term, is the first human right." He urged the French news media "to be
vigilant and to treat fairly and objectively the different religious
denominations."
Sensational coverage of the French sect list had stirred public fears
and some harassment, the State Department's 1999 report on religious liberty
said.
In response to the proposed law, Michel Bertrand, president of the
council of Protestant Churches, said, "We will not move forward . . . by
casting suspicion on all forms of religious faith."
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French Assembly Approves Controversial Anti-Cult Bill
(AFP, June 22, 2000)
PARIS, June 22 (AFP) - A controversial law to combat cults that would make
"mental manipulation" a crime was passed unanimously by the French National
Assembly Thursday, amid a chorus of outrage from minority religions and civil
rights groups.
The law would punish by up to three years in jail acts of "serious and repeated
pressure, or the use of techniques to alter the mind of a person, leading him
or her to commit a harmful act."
Another clause would allow judges to dissolve associations that have twice
been convicted on charges such as endangering lives, illegal use of medicine or
duplicitous advertising.
"We need to give judges repressive tools," said deputy Catherine Picard,
who steered the bill through the committee stage in parliament. "The law is a
response to the evolution of society and the growing importance that cults have
in it."
For the first time in France, it seeks to define a cult in law, calling
it a group "whose aim is to create or exploit the psychological or physical dependence of
those who take part in its activities."
Pressure to outlaw cults has grown in France after the mass suicide-murders
of members of the Order of the Solar Temple in the mid-1990s.
A number of controversial movements have for decades been at the centre of
allegations of extortion and brainwashing, but the brainwashing thesis itself
remains controversial.
The proposed law, which has the backing of the ruling Socialist party, has
been condemned as an assault on free speech, and an infringement of the
Declaration of Human Rights, which is incorporated in France's constitution.
Last week, representatives of mainly American religious groups took out a
full-page advertisement in the International Herald Tribune newspaper calling
on Prime Minister Lionel Jospin to withdraw the bill, or see France "compared to
China" in its lack of respect for human rights.
The Church of Scientology, which believes it is a principal target of the
planned legislation, said the bill was a "fascist exercise worthy of a totalitarian
state."
"This is how fascism begins. You have a law introduced by one government
aimed at a certain group of people. Before you know it new governments come in
and turn it on to different victims," said Scientology spokesman Jean Dupuis.
Opponents of the bill were encouraged by a statement from the
International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights earlier this month which said it would
"eliminate all liberty of association in France."
However the statement drew a caustic response from the head of the
government's Interministerial Mission to Combat Cults Alain Vivien, who said
that the federation "seemed to have fallen into the hands of scientologists and
perhaps other transnational cults."
The Mission has reported 172 cults in France, with 400,000 members or
sympathisers, and says that around 6,000 children are being brought up by
them.
According to a recent poll, 73 percent of French people believe cults are
a danger to democracy: 86 percent are in favour of banning movements such as
the Church of Scientology or the Order of the Solar Temple.
The bill originated in the upper house the Senate and was considerably
toughened by a series of amendments proposed by deputies in the Assembly. It
now goes back to the Senate for a second reading.
Reacting to the vote, Laurent Ladouce of the Unification Church --
commonly known as Moonies -- said: "In France there is a mentality that has to seek out
heresy. It used to be the priests or the Jews. Now it is the sects that are the
victims."
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