STATEMENT FROM CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY INTERNATIONAL REGARDING STATE DEPARTMENT’S HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ON FRANCE

Responding to today’s release of the U.S. State Department’s Annual Human Rights Report on France, the Church of Scientology International’s Human Rights Director, Leisa Goodman, accused French government official Alain Vivien and his “interministerial mission to fight against sects” of practicing religion-based economic discrimination. Goodman said this is done through a campaign of hate propaganda and false accusations against companies run by members of minority religions.

The State Department criticizes the French government’s boycott of a leading international computer software company Panda, because its founder is a Scientologist. The Report also documents discrimination against a range of religions, including a Baptist Bible college.

Goodman also accused Vivien of spreading religious hatred by traveling to eastern European countries to persuade them to adopt the discriminatory religion law France passed last year.

“Vivien is an anti-religious French government official who has been rampaging around Europe like a mad dog with no master. His only exports are religious intolerance and discrimination, and his blatant violations of international human rights instruments have damaged France’s standing in the human rights community,” she said.

The State Department report notes that leaders of the four major religions (Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Islamic) including the president of the French Protestant Federation and the president of the French Conference of Bishops, opposed the legislation. It has also been condemned by international human rights organizations as a violation of France’s human rights commitments.

The view of many religious leaders that the law is repressive and anti-religious, gained force last week when French National Assembly member Catherine Picard, who co-authored the law in liaison with MILS, said that “proselytism is illegal.”

“This extreme anti-religionist is claiming that a fundamental human right is illegal in France,” said Ms. Goodman. Picard admitted to the Christian Broadcasting Network that she advised the Chinese government, notorious for its brutal persecution of the Falun Gong and Christian churches, on how to draw up legislation targeting minority religions.

Ms. Goodman said that the Church will continue to document and expose MILS’ human rights abuses. Two weeks ago, the Church filed an official complaint to the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights in Geneva, requesting U.N. intervention to protect the rights of members of minority religions in France. The complaint described 18 separate incidents where Scientologists had been denied fundamental rights due to a hate campaign by MILS and Vivien.

Late last year, members of the U.S. Congress Ben Gilman and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen introduced two separate bills in the House of Representatives to impose economic penalties on countries practicing religious discrimination.