Religious Minorities in France Hold Hearings:

The Church of Scientology in France has been outspoken in criticizing governmental religious intolerance. In March 2000, the Church helped to form CAP — the Coalition of Associations and Individuals for Freedom of Thought. CAP is made up of 30 minority religious and spiritual groups, and its aim is to document the discrimination and bring it to the attention of human rights organizations. CAP holds regular public hearings around the country in which individuals come forward and describe the human rights abuses — the only such forum in France.

At a public hearing, the head of a mosque in Montreuil, a city in the Paris suburbs, describes a campaign to prevent the mosque from opening. Opposition came from Jean-Pierre Brard, a National Assembly MP who has been at the forefront of two parliamentary commissions targeting religious minorities.

Members of religious minorities relate the discrimination they have experienced at one of the regular hearings held by the Coalition of Associations and Individuals for Freedom of Thought (CAP).

Michel Raoust, president of the French Committee of Scientologists Against Discrimination, speaks at a public hearing into religious discrimination in France.