U.S. HOUSE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE UNANIMOUSLY PASSES RESOLUTION CRITICIZING RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION IN FRANCE, GERMANY, BELGIUM, AUSTRIA

WASHINGTON DC: The International Relations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives has passed unanimously a strongly-worded Resolution criticizing France for discriminating against Southern Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, Scientologists, and Catholic movements such as Opus Dei. The Resolution calls upon President Clinton to raise U.S. concerns about the treatment of these movements with French leaders.

The tough language of House Resolution 588 (HR 588) reflects the firm view of U.S. legislators that some western European democracies are violating international human rights laws protecting freedom of belief.

The Resolution, sponsored by IRC Chairman Ben Gilman (R-NY), Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ) and Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ), criticizes a French parliamentary report for targetting 173 religious organizations. The French report “has been used by both private and official entities to harass, intimidate, deny employment and deny commercial loans to listed groups, and members of other religious groups, such as Southern Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement, Opus Dei, and the Society of Jesus, have also been subject to recent discrimination and harassment at the hands of the French government.”

HR 588 also notes that Hasidic Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims, Mormons, Unificationists, Protestant and Catholic groups, Quakers, Buddhists and evangelical churches have suffered violations of their rights and that “Scientologists have been subjected to civil, political, and economic discrimination, harassment, surveillance, and orchestrated boycotts in Germany, France, Belgium and Austria....”

Rev. Heber C. Jentzsch, President of the Church of Scientology International, said he was encouraged by the strength of congressional feeling against flagrant violations of religious liberty in France. “That the Committee approved the Resolution by such a large margin is a wake-up call to the French government to honor the human rights treaties it has signed. It is time to bury the extremism of Alain Vivien and MILS,” he said.

The IRC, which in June held a well-publicized hearing into “The Treatment of Religious Minorities in Europe,” also calls for experts on religious liberty to be included in U.S. delegations at meetings of international bodies such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Passage of the Resolution was supported by a range of religious organizations, including Family Research Council, the Southern Baptists, the Institute for Public Policy the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and the Church of Scientology.