Houellebecq also told the interviewer that he felt Islam was "a dangerous religion right from the start."
The rights of Churches and the scope of the notion of freedom of religion as guaranteed by article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights
The diversity of institutional models governing the relations between Churches and States and the types of State assistance :
- Do States have an obligation to recognize Churches (the legal status of religious communities, the types of recognition, the dissolution of Churches and religious movements) ?
The diversity of institutional models governing the relations between Churches and States and the types of State assistance (continued) :
- Does the recognition of Churches by States imply a right to public funding (privileged relations between States and certain Churches, different kinds of financing arrangements) ?
Report on the placement of the children of an Antoinist mother in an open environment for educational assistance (*)
On the 16th December 1999, the children?fs judge, Fran?oise Dupuis, ordered that the children be educated in an open environment by an association which provides specialised services for children and teenagers in difficulty (ADSSEAD) for a year, starting from the following day, the 17th December 1999. There were various reasons for this ; firstly the educational assistant questioned the mother?fs actual ability to take into account the needs of the children , and she wanted to leave sufficient time to provoke the parents into trusting and communicating with each other. At the same time, the judge ordered a medical and psychological investigation of the children to determine how their education should best be directed.
The teachers submitted their report on the 12th March 2001. The children were removed from their family and placed under the authority of the ADSSEAD. Until June 2001, they were only allowed to visit their mother at home for two hours every fortnight.
In June 2001, following a case at the appeal court of Douai aimed at getting back the children, visitation rights were extended, and alternating visits with the father were arranged. The educational assistant who promised to return the children within four months was transferred to another place.
At the end of September 2001, the ex-husband made a written request to the children?fs judge that the children be returned to their mother.
According to the children?fs grandmother who got in contact with me, the educational assistants, the social worker (Madam Delplanque) and the psychologist (Monsieur Berquet) all played a role in the placement of the children. She explained that when they visited her home, they met Monsieur Fosse (deceased 11th May 2001), who had been the priest in charge of the Antoinist temple of Valenciennes, who was present, but was not interviewed by them. She also stated that the educational assistant, Madame Dens, whose son went to the same school as Cindy and Cline (Institution Ste Marie), had been told by the social worker about the mother?fs religion and that she went to get more information from the headmistress of the school.
In a letter which was passed to the mother?fs solicitor and transmitted to the judge, the headmistress of Ste Marie assured that the children were good students and that she would gladly have them back at her school.
According to the grandmother, the children are in a closed environment. The educational assistant Mr. Teneur realised that something was not normal; hence his transfer. He is the children?fs referent.
The mother?fs solicitor has had the case reopened and a referent educational assistant is to be appointed. She will carry out an enquiry, following which the judge will make a decision.
The children are driven each day to their schools in Rumegies and Sebourg by the teachers. The parents have not received any school report. The children?fs mother has asked for a psychological examination of the children, who are very disturbed and asking what is happening to them.
The grandmother had originally naively written to a French association called ADFI (Association for the Defense of the Family and the Individual) to ask its advice, as she believed that the association protected families. ADFI sent her the list of dangerous cults which had been drawn up by the French parliamentary commission into cults, and included a mention of Antoinism as a healing cult. However, Antoinism is a recognised religion in France (Law of 1905-1097).
The children were not going to the temple, and the grandmother says she is followed in the street when she goes to the temple.
Update: On 20 December 2001, the judge decided not to grant the children?fs custody to any of the parents but to an institution called ?gMaison de l?fEnfance?h (Childhood House) in Sebourg. The mother?fs attorney argued for two hours, in vain. She told that the mother did not attend the Antoinist temple any more but the judge replied that the grandmother was still an Antoinist. The mother appealed the verdict. The Court of Appel of Douai will examine the case in July 2002.
(*) This was a first report compiled after an interview with the grandmother before the other parties had been interviewed.
Member of the board of directors of Human Rights Without Frontiers International
Alain Vivien, who wrote the first parliamentary report against sects in 1983, was the chairman of the CCMM during 1997-1998. Although he was appointed chairman of the MILS in 1998, he remained on the board of directors of the CCMM. Jean-Pierre Bousquet succeeded Vivien as head of the CCMM, at least formally. The anti-sect group was in fact run by its administrative manager, Vivien?fs wife. A conflict arose between the new chairman and Vivien?fs wife, as well as three other key staff members. Although not legally empowered to do so, a CCMM bureau dismissed Bousquet in May 2001.This case was litigated in court. On 6 June 2001, the High Court of Paris (Tribunal de Grande Instance) put the CCMM under judicial control to allow time for election of a new chairman.
Although a confidential interim report of the National Education was given to two ministers and to the chairman of the MILS, it was publicized by the CCMM.
When Alain Vivien, as chairman of the MILS, took part in a symposium on the sect issue in China in 2000, his wife accompanied him as the representative of the CCMM.
Early in 2001, Vivien?fs wife personally negotiated a budget of 4.5 FF (about U.S. $ 700,000) in the office of Jospin?fs cabinet head to purchase new headquarters for the CCMM. In February 2001, the requested amount was drawn from the budget for the defence of human rights and allocated to the CCMM. Before doing so, the official in charge of the request consulted the chairman of the MILS C Vivien. Alain Vivien is also the chairman of the DOM-TOM (Overseas Departments and Territories) of the League of Human Rights and has been since 1996.
In June 2001, Henry Pradeaux, Jospin?fs cabinet head, was said to have asked Alain Vivien to end this situation verging on a conflict of interest.
Other members of the board have announced their intention to resign from the CCMM. Among them are Max Bouderlique and Marie Genve, a co-founding member and chairwoman of honor of the CCMM.
National Union of the Associations Defending the Family and the Individual (UNADFI)
Since 1982, Janine Tavernier has been a fierce anti-sect activist. She had discovered that her husband, a former naval officer, had been seduced by a guru. Since 1993, she has chaired the UNADFI (National Union of the Associations Defending the Family and the Individual). She resigned on 21 September 2001. The reason for her departure: her children had been educated in Steiner schools, blacklisted as sect schools in the French parliamentary report and by Alain Vivien.
However, a letter addressed by Minister of Education Jack Lang to the Federation of the Steiner Schools on 24 July 2001 indicates that ?gcontrols carried out by General Inspector Daniel Groscolas have not revealed any sectarian activities?h. Daniel Groscolas is the head of the agency for the prevention of the sectarian phenomenon created at the Ministry of Education.
From the very beginning of the existence of the MILS, Alain Vivien clashed with inspector Groscolas and with psychiatrist Jean-Marie Abgrall, a long-standing anti-sect activist and an expert on the Order of the Solar Temple. According to Vivien, teaching staff with links to sects should be sanctioned but Groscolas always refused to take disciplinary measures against teachers accused of links with sects but who have not committed any professional misconduct. In February 2000, Groscolas and Abgrall were not re-appointed in the new ?gorientation council of the MILS?h. And last but not least, magistrate Denis Barthlemy, who was leading the official French delegation at the OSCE Meeting on the Human Dimension a few years ago, resigned from the MILS in July 2001.
Source: Le Point, 19 October 2001.
The idea is not an unconventional one. In Belgium, the 350,000 Muslim population already has its formal representative body, the Executive of Muslims in Belgium (EMB). In December 1998, the Muslim community held internal elections to appoint 52 of the 68 members of its constituent assembly, while the other 16 members were co-opted for their particular abilities. The assembly selected from its members the 16 individuals to make up the Executive of Muslims in Belgium, acting as an interlocutor between the Muslim community and the state.
The Executive of Muslims in Belgium was established in a more favourable domestic and international context compared to the aftermath of the events of 11th September. Nevertheless, even at that time, the project had to embrace a number of heavily-charged issues like the multinational diversity of the Muslim community and the fair distribution of elected representatives of the different Muslim groups according to their demographic distribution.[i]
France?fs Muslim community accounts for nearly 10 percent of the country?fs 59 million people. About 3 million French Muslims are of North African descent, with 1.5 million coming from Algeria, another 1 million from Morocco and 350,000 from Tunisia. The rest come from all over the Muslim world, including Turkey, the Gulf Arab states and even sub-Saharan Africa.
The idea behind the proposal is to look for ways of unifying the diverse Muslim community and thus having an oversight of perceived radical fractions. The attacks of 11 September seem to appear as a justification for the undelayed implementation of the proposal and the French Minister of the Interior, Daniel Vaillant, made sure that this message is sent across at a meeting with members of the consultation mechanism few days after the events. Fouad Alaoui, Secretary General of the Union of Islamic Organisations in France, stated that ?gthe attacks have shown how important it is, from a symbolic point of view, to have a formal representative body able to give its stand on important events?h and further underlined that ?gall Muslim organisations in France have condemned the attacks?h.[ii]
The events of 11 September, however, have reinforced the arguments of the opponents of the consultation mechanism, which also come from within the Muslim community. Soheib Bencheikh, chief mufti of Marseille, associated with the consultation mechanism, voiced his criticism of the initiative launched by the Minister of the Interior as a process that would ?grisk to make Islam commonplace?h. Outspoken criticism has also come from a heterogeneous coalition of French Muslims that accused the consultation mechanism of ?gnursing the beast?h.[iii]
The French Government has confronted such criticism by highlighting its good intentions to have a representative institution that would reflect the diversity of Islam in France. The divisions within this diversity, however, may in turn be the Achilles heel of the project. There are several national federations that claim to represent the Muslims and unite a number of mosques and places of worship. These are:
The date for the establishment of the Council is not decided yet, though plans are to have it as early as the beginning of next year. In the months to come, the regional electoral committees composed of qualified persons chosen by the Muslim federations or mosques will agree on the list of places of worship located in their region as well as on the number of representatives attributed to each one. It is already decided that mosques with space of over 800m2 will have 13 representatives at the regional assemblies.
On the basis of a recently obtained ?gworking document?h providing a map of Islam in France, Le Monde informs of the existence of more than 1,500 mosques and places of worship. In the eastern and northern part of France, several mosques are located in buildings of former factories and the space they use may not be indicative of the number of visitors.
What could be the ramifications of the immense task staying ahead of the French Government? The multinational diversity and affiliations of federations and mosques in France may disturb the government?fs ability to cover the whole of the broad-based Muslim community. Amidst debates on Islam and mounting tensions, such initiative may contribute to the further alienation and marginalisation of fringe Muslim groups rather than to the establishment of an organisation capable of representing the whole Muslim community.
The 2001 survey was carried out on two samples of the population--.
The first group was made up of 950 individuals over the age of 18, representative of the French population : they were interviewed by telephone on the 27th and 28th September.
The other comprised 548 individuals over the age of 16 who stated that they belonged to a Muslim family living in France : the interviews were carried out on a face to face basis from the 22nd to the 25th September. The wide range of questions allowed for a detailed evaluation of public opinion.
The survey essentially revealed three points. Firstly, that Muslims are facing less complexes in living their faith within society, and have no hesitation in stating their religious affiliation. Secondly, their image is improving in non-Muslim public opinion, and their presence in the country has become more accepted C a sign of integration. Thirdly, the study revealed a marked community patriotism.
However, the two groups studied had quite divergent opinions on political issues.
For the majority of the French, Islam?fs reputation is still associated with such negative concepts as fanaticism, submission and rejection of Western values. However, the prejudice has been significantly dissipated in the six years since the previous poll. In contrast, the Muslim population associates its religion with justice, freedom and democracy. The two perceptions are therefore poles apart.
Are you in favour of or opposed to the erection of mosques in France when Muslim believers request it ?
83% of Muslims were in favour in 2001 as opposed to 79% in 1989.
31% of the French population are in favour of this in 2001 as opposed to 33% in 1989 while the percentage of French people who feel strongly against the construction of mosques plummeted from 38% to 22%.
35% of French people claimed they would be opposed in 2001 compared to 63% in 1989.
Some elements of the survey reinforce concerns of the French population. A tenth of the Muslim population expressed a good opinion of Bin Laden and 18% of the youths aged between 16 and 24 claimed to like him. Saddam Hussein found favour in the eyes of 22% of the Muslims questioned.
The vast majority of French Muslims (92%) disagree with the terrorist attacks committed in the United States, but 68% of them think that American politics in the Middle East drove the Islamic extremists to it. 64% dismissed both Bush and Bin Laden without pronouncing in favour of either of them.
Conclusion : Islam, the second largest religion in France (4-5 million Muslims, 1,500 places of worship), is more and more becoming part of the French landscape, to the point where the majority of French people interviewed would no longer have any objection to the building of mosques or the election of a Muslim mayor in their area.
However, a few days after the attacks in New York and Washington, a widely-published French writer, Michel Houellebecq, triggered an uproar with his statements to the magazine Lire : ? Islam is a dangerous religion and has been such since its appearance. ? Muslims in France have seeking legal recourse.
The men were arrested on Monday in the poor Cairo suburb of Matariya, where police seized books and tapes suspected of containing unconventional beliefs about Muslim pilgrimages, prayer and fasting.
State security prosecutors remanded 13 of the men in custody for 15 days on Tuesday. The leader of the alleged group, a 52-year-old government employee, was remanded in custody for the same period on Monday.
The charge of "denigrating the Islamic religion by spreading extreme ideas" carries a maximum penalty of five years in jail.
Egypt, a mainly Muslim country of 70 million, has tried a number of groups and individuals on the charges in recent years.
The arrests are seen as separate from the government's fight against radical Islamist political groups who took up arms against the rule of President Hosni Mubarak in the early 1990s.
In a separate case, two of 52 suspected homosexual men currently on trial are accused of "forming a group which aims to exploit the Islamic religion to propagate extremist ideas".
Egypt is home to al-Azhar mosque and university, regarded as one of Islam's highest religious authorities.
CSW (08.08.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (08.08.2001) - Website :http : //www.hrwf.net C Email :info@hrwf.net - Christians in Egypt are celebrating news that the 22 victims of the El-Kosheh riots may at last see justice.
The Supreme Court in Egypt has ordered a retrial in the case of nearly 100 Muslims and Christians accused of being involved in the violence which left 21 Christians and a Muslim dead.
El-Kosheh, a village on the River Nile 440km south of Cairo, was the site of the worst inter-religious riots in Egypt for decades over the Millennium New Year.
The violence broke out after a row over money between a shop owner and a customer and Christians say the police failed to stop the fighting.
A court earlier acquitted all but four of the 96 defendants over the deaths and even the four jailed were not jailed for murder.
Coptic Christian Bishop Wissa said he hoped this was a chance to right the wrongs which had caused such damage to the Christian community. He told the Associated Press news agency: ?gWe think justice can now prevail. There were killers and there were victims and we only want to know who was who.?h
One of the catalysts for the violence was the murder of two Christians at El-Kosheh in August 1998.
More than 1,000 Christians were rounded up by the police and many, including children, were tortured to try to extract a confession.
A Christian called William Shaiboub Arsal was sentenced to 15 years with hard labour despite the fact that the sole prosecution witnesses against him were two army conscripts who later retracted their statements saying they had only made them under duress.
He was quietly sentenced on the same day the court opened proceedings against the 96 implicated in the later riots. William has been granted leave to appeal to the Egyptian Court of Cassation, but it is not known when the appeal will be heard and in the meantime he is about to start his fourth year of imprisonment.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide has supported the campaign for a retrial of the 96 defendants and we are calling on the Egyptian Government to promote a culture of religious tolerance and respect for human rights.
CSW is also calling on the Government to bring construction and planning laws for non-Muslim places of worship into line with existing laws governing the construction of mosques.
Mervyn Thomas, chief executive of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said: ?gIt?fs great news that the Egyptian justice system has at last ordered a retrial of those arrested after the El-Kosheh violence. We are going to be watching developments closely and trust that the families of those who lost loved ones will at last see justice done.?h
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U.S. congressman assails French law on sects
by Paul Holmes
Reuters (09.07.2001) / HRWF International Secretariat (23.07.2001) -Website :http://www.hrwf.net C Email :info@hrwf.net - A member of Congress branded a new French law aimed at controlling the activities of sects profoundly intolerant Monday and said it could spread an "anti-religious contagion" if allowed to stand.
New Jersey Republican Chris Smith said the bill, adopted by the French National Assembly in May, was so vague in its provisions that it could in theory be applied to almost any cult or religion, including the Roman Catholic Church.
Smith, chairman of the House sub-committee on international operations and human rights, spoke to reporters after what he called contentious, argumentative talks with the bill's co-author Catherine Picard.
The new law makes it an offense to abuse a vulnerable person through "the exertion of heavy or repeated pressure or techniques" liable to alter his or her judgment.
It also allows courts to ban groups if individual members are convicted of such existing offenses as fraud, illegal practice of medicine, wrongful advertising or sexual abuse.
Smith said he was concerned the law could give repressive states an excuse to suppress religious freedoms and said he would push for congressional hearings leading "minimally" to a resolution condemning the bill.
"This (law) is sowing the seeds for profound religious intolerance in France. If and when it is exported, it will spread an anti-religious contagion," Smith said.
"When I read the plain body of the language, you can take virtually any denomination and in a variety of situations you can dissolve it. You name it, the Catholic Church, you can dissolve it," he added.
Justice Minister Marylise Lebranchu said when the bill was passed that its intention was to protect the weak and that the law would not limit freedom of conscience or worship.
170 groups under scrutiny
The French anti-cult law has already ignited fears among religious and Rights groups of a similar move in Hong Kong to curb China's banned Falun Gong spiritual movement. Provisions in the draft that would have made brainwashing, or "mental manipulation," a criminal offense were dropped from the final version After an outcry from several groups.
Roman Catholic and Protestant Church leaders in France have also expressed their disquiet.
More than 170 groups are officially designed as sects in France and remain under government surveillance.
They include the Church of Scientology, founded by the late American Science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, which has said the bill sounds a "death knell" for French democracy.
Smith was in Paris on a congressional delegation to a meeting of the parliamentary assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
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France joins list of religious-liberty violators
Aid to the Church in Need issues a 2001 Report
Zenit (03.07.2001/ HRWF International Secretariat (04.07.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Violations of religious liberty are increasing, particularly in China, Indonesia, Sudan, Nigeria and Turkmenistan, says a new report from Aid to the Church in Need.
But the biggest surprise of the "2001 Report on Religious Liberty in the World" is the inclusion of France among the countries with discriminatory laws. On May 30, France introduced a law against the generic crime of "mental manipulation."
Andrea Morigi, one of the report's authors, explained that the French measure runs the risk of censuring traditional Christian religious practices, such as fasting, or the disrupted patterns of sleep in some monasteries.
The Catholic Church and Protestant communities have opposed this law, which has been approved by parties of the right and left.
The religious-liberty report, however, notes progress made in Switzerland. The Swiss recently abolished an 1874 law that called for government approval for the establishment of new Catholic dioceses.
The report analyzes 189 countries and divides the world into areas. They include:
--The Muslim area, where there is continued discrimination based on the Shariah, or Islamic law, and where, in general, non-Muslims are prohibited from evangelizing or proclaiming their faith.
--The Social-Communist area, particularly China, where there is a repressive policy vis--vis religious groups.
--The Hindu-Buddhist area: where there is social discrimination against those belonging to other religions.
--The Conflict Areas: where there are massacres among various groups, including for religious reasons.
--Areas where legislation is harmful to religious liberty.
--Areas where no discrimination is evidenced.
The report's authors explain that Aid to the Church in Need defends the liberty of all religions, not just Christianity.
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French court clears conductor of cult deaths
Reuters (25.06.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (26.06.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net- - A French court cleared Swiss orchestra conductor Michel Tabachnik on Monday of conspiracy to murder charges stemming from his involvement in the Order of the Solar Temple doomsday sect.
Prosecutors had urged the court to jail him for five years for allegedly inciting cult members into suicide pacts. Tabachnik's trial took place in April, but French courts regularly announce their verdicts after a delay of weeks or months.
The trial in Grenoble, in the French Alps, focused mainly on the deaths of 16 sect members -- including three children -- whose charred bodies were found, laid out in a star pattern, in December 1995 in a remote French Alpine forest.
Prosecutors said Tabachnik played a leading role in the sect, whose members believed that "death voyages" by ritualized suicide lead to rebirth on the star Sirius.
Tabachnik, 58, admitted he once had links to the cult but insisted he knew nothing about any of the mass suicides, which led 74 members to their deaths in Europe and Canada between 1994 and 1997.
The sect was founded in the early 1990s by Joseph Di Mambro, a Frenchman, and Luc Jouret, a Swiss national. It is now believed to be dormant.
Tabachnik, a specialist in contemporary music, is also a composer. His career has been on hold since he was placed under investigation in 1996. He was not present in Grenoble when the court cleared him.
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Moslem woman refused residency permit
because of shawl
DPA (20.06.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (21.06.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - A French court has upheld the decision by immigration officials to refuse to renew a Moslem woman's residency permit because she wore a shawl in her identification photos, judicial sources said Wednesday.
The court of appeals in the eastern French city of Nancy agreed with the sub-prefecture of the town of Montbeliard who, in 1996, did not renew the Turkish woman's residency permit because the shawl she wore in the photos concealed her hair and neck and made it impossible to identify her.
French regulations demand that ID photos show the individual "fullface (and) bare-headed".
The woman subsequently lodged a legal complaint, accusing the sub-prefecture of violating her religious rights as set out in the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Nancy court rejected her arguments, ruling that French law allowed Moslem women to wear a shawl in photos as long as their hair roots, neck and ears were visible.
The refusal to renew the woman's residency permit did not affect her right to stay in France, however.
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Meeting against illegal activities of sects in Europe held in Paris
Xinhua via COMTEX (18.06.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (19.06.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - France's Interministerial Committee for the Struggle against Cults (MILS) announced Monday that it has hosted a work meeting on "illegal activities of organizations of sect-like character in Europe" in Paris on June 14 and 15. Representatives from 22 European governments, mainly from public institutions charged with surveillance and fight against sects, attended the meeting, said MILS, a cult-combating agency created by the French government in 1998.
The meeting has been "a free and full exchange of information and reflection concerning various situation and national experiences" and "perspectives of consultation and coordination have been mentioned," MILS said in its statement.
Participants of this meeting, the first of its kind, will meet at a regular term in the future, it added.
On May 31, the French Parliament has adopted a new law to reinforce the prevention and repression of groups of a sect-like character. According to a parliamentary commission report, a total of 172 sects are now active in France.
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Cult crackdown called extreme
Scientology tops hit list in France as new legislation against religious sects inches closer
by Micheal Valpy
The Guardian (12.06.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (15.06.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net France is moving forward with Europe's severest legislation against minority religious groups, igniting fears among civil-liberties organizations that it could invite similar measures by other governments.
Ignoring criticism from mainstream church leaders and foreign governments, especially Washington, France's National Assembly has passed a law "to reinforce the prevention and repression of groups of a sect-like character."
The French bill is awaiting final passage by the Senate, which is expected some time in the fall.
"This law makes the practice of one's religion into a criminal offence," said Joseph Grieboski, president of the Washington-based Institute on Religion and Public Policy.
The legislation contains two controversial parts.
First, it creates a new category of crime, carrying a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment, for abuse of a person "in a state of psychological or physical dependence caused by the exertion of heavy or repeated pressure or techniques liable to alter his judgment."
Second, it enables courts to order that officially designated cults be dissolved if two leading members are convicted of crimes such as fraud and child abuse.
Critics of the legislation say its language is too vague, leaving such terms as "sect," "dependence" and "pressure" undefined.
The respected French daily Le Figaro pointed out that the lifestyle of a Carmelite nun could fall afoul of the legislation.
Others have said the law's vague language might describe some commercial marketing techniques.
There is also concern that France's attitude may be spreading.
Belgium, Germany, Austria and several Eastern European countries have also officially identified "sects," many of them American, for close monitoring
Newspapers in Hong Kong have reported that the territorial government is planning similar legislation to control the Falun Gong movement, which is outlawed as an "evil cult" in the rest of China but is still legal in Hong Kong.
"Lawmakers and administrators in such countries use anticult initiatives of the minority [of] Western European states as justification for even harsher measures that have adverse impacts on a wide range of smaller but legitimate religious groups," Professor W. Cole Durham, director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Utah's Brigham Young University, said at a U.S. Senate committee hearing last month.
But French parliamentarian Catherine Picard, co-author of the bill, said critics have misunderstood the legislation and its objectives. "We don't care about religion, that's not our problem," she said. "You can worship an orange in your kitchen as long as you don't disturb public order, as long as you don't force people and act in illegal ways." According to a recent French poll, 73 per cent of respondents believe cults are a danger to democracy and 86 per cent would ban organizations such as the Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology, to which the French government has been paying close attention for 10 years.
"Right off the bat, I think they'll nail Scientology," said Rev. Louis DeMeo, a U.S.-born Baptist pastor who has lived in France for 20 years.
But Scientology is hardly alone in France's bad books.
The French Interministerial Mission to Battle Against Sects has drawn up a list of 172 officially designated sects with 400,000 adherents. These groups are having difficulties elsewhere, too. In fact, the word evangelical -- a Christian term for preaching the Gospel (or good news) of Jesus Christ -- has come to be nearly synonymous with religious proselytizing.
In Germany, the Scientologists have been called a totalitarian group.
Scientologists, seeking to counter this label and the baggage it carries in Germany, have likened themselves to the persecuted Jews of the Second World War.
In Belgium, a list of designated cults includes groups that most North Americans consider to be relatively benign, such as the Amish, the Seventh-Day Adventists, the Assemblies of God and the Jehovah's Witnesses.
"There is a very strong anti-religious bias that has emerged in Europe. "If you are an evangelical, you're a nut," Christopher Smith, a U.S. congressman who chairs the human-rights-monitoring Helsinki Commission, told the Washington Times recently.
Religious scholars and representatives of international religious bodies say Europeans have reacted with horror to cult-related tragedies around the world, such the recent sect suicide in Uganda, which claimed more than 900 lives.
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Anti-Sect Law: Christian lawyers prepare for action
by Patrick Goodenough
CNS News (04.06.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (06.06.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net Having lost the battle to prevent the passage of controversial anti-sect legislation, French churches may now - ironically - find it easier to challenge any attempted discrimination in court, according to a European public interest law firm with strong American links.
With the law now in force, lawyers have something "much more concrete" to work with, said Joel Thornton, the executive director of the Strasbourg-based European Center for Law and Justice, which is firmly opposed to the legislation.
The law, passed by French lawmakers last week, is aimed at countering the activities of sects considered to be dangerous.
It was the culmination of a process which several years ago saw a parliamentary commission compile a list of 172 designated sects, which included some evangelical churches. "What's happened in the past is, people have thrown up their hands, saying: 'There's no law in place, it's not a big deal, this [sect list] is just an unofficial report, don't worry about it,'" Thornton said in an interview.
You've had some churches that have been denied this or denied that, but there's not been official government action," he said. "But now, with the law in place, with serious consequences, it's much more concrete as far as a lawyer's perspective goes."
The law empowers judges to shut down a sect if its representatives have been convicted of certain offenses. It also outlaws a newly defined crime, "mental manipulation," which is punishable by a large fine and five years' imprisonment.
"If the law's going to be effective at all from a French government standpoint, it will have to be enforced. Then the question arises - is it being enforced in such a way that inhibits religious liberty [which in turn provides a legal case]?" Thornton said.
"There are already churches that are having troubles from being named on the sect report," he said. "We expect that fairly quickly there's going to be some more action - pressure put on government officials to enforce the law that now exists."
When this happens, he added, lawyers would be able to help churches mount a strong defense, particularly one based on the European Convention of Human Rights.
"France is a signatory to this document that guarantees freedom of religion, freedom of association, freedom of speech," Thornton said.
But while lawyers had something to get to grips with, "my concern is that it could be very harsh on a lot of churches" while legal proceedings work themselves out, he said. Anti-American sentiment?
Thornton said he expected some French churches to face problems very soon, and the European Center for Law and Justice hoped to get attorneys onto the cases and into the courts quickly to defend them.
The churches most likely to fall foul of the new law, he said, were Protestant ones, "especially those classified as evangelical."
The president of the French Protestant Federation, the Rev. Jean-Arnold de Clermont, said last week some churches were already considering removing the word "evangelical" from their names and literature.
Some anti-cult campaigners in the French parliament and media have promoted the notion that sects are a dangerous American import. One respected newspaper earlier called them an "American Trojan horse" in Europe.
During the debate in the legislature on May 30, the U.S. administration was accused of having been infiltrated by both Scientology and "Moon" - presumably a reference to the Unification Church founded in South Korea by Sun Myung Moon and accused of brainwashing new recruits into absolute obedience.
Thornton said he could see the possibility of problems for churches regarded as having strong attachments to United States congregations, or with Americans in leadership positions.
He said a colleague who was present in the National Assembly during the debate leading up to passage of the law said lawmakers spoke specifically about perceived problems relating to American churches and "evangelicals from America."
Asked to what degree an anti-U.S. feeling may have driven the anti-sect campaign, Thornton said it may have played a role.
"I wouldn't go as far as to say that the whole law is motivated by anti-American sentiment, but I think there is some anti-American sentiment and this law is seen as - one of the things it does is solve that problem."
He said he hoped he was wrong in this assessment, "because I think that would be detrimental both to the churches and to the French government, just from an international relations standpoint."
Thornton said the ECLJ had attorneys willing to work for religious liberties and defend churches, helping them to make legal arguments before the courts.
Set up in 1998, the ECLJ aims "to safeguard and protect human rights and religious freedoms for people of faith in Europe."
It is the international arm of the American Center for Law and Justice, founded by Christian Broadcasting Network president Pat Robertson.
In further reaction to the French law, Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ), co-chair of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, said in a statement that France, along with 54 other nations who signed up to the Helsinki Final Act in 1975, had agreed to respect the freedoms of "thought, conscience, religion or belief, for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion."
The Helsinki accords also committed France to respect the "freedom of the individual to profess and practice, alone or in community with others, religion or belief acting in accordance with the dictates of his own conscience," he added.
"There is no question the anti-sect law flies in the face of the commitments agreed to in the Helsinki Final Act. This law is clearly in violation ofan individual's fundamental human right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief," Smith said.
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France arms itself with legal weapon to fight sects
Law to shield the vulnerable worries main churches
by Jon Henley
The Guardian (01.06.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (05.06.2001) Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net France has become the first country in the world to introduce specific legislation aimed at controlling the activities of cults. The objective is to combat the 175-odd movements of a quasi-religious nature considered a danger to society.
The Scientology movement and the Unification Church of the Rev Sun Myung Moon immediately denounced the bill - endorsed almost unanimously on Wednesday by national assembly deputies - as anti-democratic and in breach of human rights laws. Roman Catholic and Protestant leaders have expressed disquiet.But the justice minister, Marylise Lebranchu, described it as "an important, even a vital law to protect human liberties".
Once approved by the senate, the law will allow courts to order the immediate dissolution of any movement regarded as a cult whose members are found guilty of such existing offences as fraud, abuse of confidence, the illegal practice of medicine, wrongful advertising and sexual abuse.
Sects will also be prohibited from opening missions or touting for new members near schools, hospitals or retirement homes, and from reforming under a different name once they have been legally banned. A convicted guru would risk five years in jail and a fine of 500,000 for reoffending.
The key weapon - and the chief source of religious concern - is the creation of a new offence, "the fraudulent abuse of a state of ignorance or weakness", carrying with it a prison sentence of up to three years and a maximum fine of 250,000. This clause will make it a crime to "exercise heavy or repeated pressure on a vulnerable person, or use techniques likely to alter his judgment, to induce in him behaviour prejudicial to his interests."
The law defines "vulnerable people" as minors, the elderly, or anyone suffering from a long-term or debilitating illness or considered after medical examination to be "in a state of physical or psychological subjection".
The Scientology movement is almost certainly one of the main targets of the new law. Addressing supporters in a Paris hotel, Marc Bromberg, one of its leaders in France, denounced the bill as "the work of a handful of extremists wanting to impose state atheism".
The French authorities, who refuse to recognised the Los Angeles-based organisation as a religion, seeing it as a purely commercial operation out to make as much money as it can as fast as it can, have fought a running battle with it for the past 10 years.
In a trial in Marseille two years ago, seven Scientology officials were accused by former members of selling bogus "purification" treatments costing between 1,200 and 15,000 but consisting mainly of sessions in the sauna, jogging and vitamin pills. Several leading French Scientologists have been sentenced to jail terms - often suspended - for fraud and other financial offences, leading the US state department to accuse the French authorities of harassment and persecution.
Founded in 1954 by the American science fiction writer the late L Ron Hubbard, the organisation claims more than 8m members worldwide, including 40,000 in France. they include the Hollywood stars Tom Cruise and John Travolta.
In France, Scientology was first described as a sect in a 1996 parliamentary report. It still features on a list of 173 groups under government surveillance. Among them is the Order of the Solar Temple, which orchestrated the suicide of 74 of its followers in the 1990s. Cults and sects are believed to hold 300,000 people in thrall in France.
Some countries ban one or more sects; others use existing laws against them. Catherine Picard, a leading sponsor of the French bill, described it yesterday as an important first for the world, because it attacked sects directly, defining them as groups "pursuing activities aimed at, or with the effect of, exploiting the dependency of followers".
Cardinal Louis-Marie Bill, of the Conference of French Bishops, and Jean-Arnold de Clermont, of the Protestant Federation, argued in a recent letter to the prime minister that the word sect should have been left out of the bill "because it is indefinable in law".
The bill's defenders point out that the same could be said of the word religion. "We all know what sects are," said one MP, Jean-Pierre Brard. "They cultivate secrecy and dissimulation, they prosper in obscurity. We needed a weapon to fight them, and now we have it."
By Patrick Goodenough
RT(01.06.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (05.06.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - French Christians are bracing for problems resulting from the passage this week of a controversial new law aimed at controlling the
activities of dangerous religious sects, but also likely to affect ordinary churches.
Some churches were already considering removing the word "evangelical" from their names, the president of the French Protestant Federation (FPF), the Rev. Jean-Arnold de Clermont, said from Paris Thursday.
Ignorance and paranoia, fueled by negative and sensationalist media reports, have led to a situation in which any non-mainstream churches are lumped together in people's minds with cults, say critics of the law, which was passed by the French parliament on Wednesday.
Opponents include human rights groups and mainstream Protestant and Catholic leaders. Some have called the move an assault on human rights, fearing it could encourage autocratic regimes like China to further suppress minority religions there.
The law's sponsors argued that it would give the courts powers to clamp down on sects that use methods like brainwashing or drugs to attract young people. Judges will be empowered to shut down a sect if two of its representatives have been convicted of an offense such as using misleading publicity. The law also makes provision for a new offense of "mental manipulation," punishable by a fine of up to $75,000 and five years' imprisonment.
But exactly what is defined as a sect or cult is unclear.
Following the suicides and murders of members of the Solar Temple cult in Canada, France and Switzerland in the mid-1990s, a French parliamentary commission drew up a list of 172 designated sects. Organizations whose names appeared on the list ranged from unorthodox groups like the Raelians, to large sects like Scientologists, the Unification Church and Jehovah's Witnesses, to evangelical and Pentecostal-type churches.
'Clean Your Own House'
The French Protestant Federation represents 16 major churches and 5,000 associations, including Reformed, Lutheran and Pentecostal churches, as well as the Federation of Evangelical Baptist Churches of France.
FPF president De Clermont said Thursday that on about 10 occasions since he took office in 1999, the inclusion of the word "evangelical" in the name of a church or appearing in its mission statement had "got people into trouble." In some cases, the churches concerned found it difficult to rent premises, or to get help from official bodies.
De Clermont attributed the problem to ignorance. Earlier Thursday he had been challenged by a leftist politician during a television program to remove such groups from the federation's ranks.
"He told me: 'You have to clean your own house. This is why you are afraid [of the new law], because you know that on the fringes of your churches there are people under the name evangelical who are no more than sects.' "
De Clermont said the law was ambiguous. "It's not precise enough. We feel that one day it could be used against any church if the mood changes in society."
French politicians were very proud of the law, he said, arguing that they were leading the way in the fight against cults, and expressing hope other European countries would follow their lead. But he hoped other government bodies in Europe would ask hard questions of the French, and "not to leave the churches in France as the only ones to say there is a real danger."
Earlier Thursday, an FPF spokesperson said the law effectively challenged the constitutional separation of church and state entrenched in 1905 by trying to define what religion is acceptable and what is not. "We're having to learn to change our vocabulary," she said. "Everyone is frightened when you say 'evangelical.' "
The spokesperson said even those officials who drew up the "blacklist" of sects later conceded that some organizations should not have been included yet it had proved impossible to remove those names from the list.
Catholic Concern
Protestants are not the only Christians concerned. Pope John Paul II said when accepting the credential of a new French ambassador to the Vatican last June that discrimination against "one or other form of religious practice will necessarily create a climate of tension, intolerance, opposition and suspicion, not conducive to social peace."
A French daily editorialized around the same time that the lifestyle of a Carmelite nun could easily fall foul of the anti-sect law in the future.
"A young girl who has chosen to live outside of the world, who has given up her belongings, left her clothes, cut her hair, who obeys without a murmur to anything, works hard without any salary and gets up several times a night to recite prayers learned by heart may be considered one day, by a judge, as the victim of 'mental manipulation,' " Le Figaro commented.
Earlier this week Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ), the U.S. co-chairman of the Helsinki Commission - which monitors human rights in Europe - was quoted as saying he hoped the commission would investigate the new French law. "There is a very strong anti-religious bias that has emerged in Europe," he was quoted as saying. "If you're an evangelical, you are a nut."
Commission spokesman Ben Anderson said from Washington Thursday the French law could well be the subject of debate at a parliamentary assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), to be held in Paris in July. U.S. congressmen will participate in the gathering.
The Helsinki Commission, whose formal title is the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, is an independent agency monitoring the human rights commitments of the members of the OSCE. It comprises nine members each from the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Criminalize Evangelism
In further reaction to the passage of the French legislation, the Washington-based Institute on Religion and Public Policy said in a statement the law could criminalize evangelism by deeming it an "exercise [in] serious and repeated pressure on a person in order to create or
exploit a state of dependence."
"This law represents the latest effort of extremists in France to pass repressive legislation designed to infringe upon the rights of targeted minority religions by manufacturing a means to ban disfavored minority religions from France," said the institute's president, Joseph K. Grieboski.
Religious adherents elsewhere could also be affected by the move, he said, noting that the authorities in Hong Kong were closely monitoring the law as a potential model to act against the Falun Gong spiritual movement, regarded by the Chinese government as a dangerous sect.
"It is great shame that a liberal democratic society like that of France - a bastion and cradle of western democratic thought and civilization - would deprive its citizens of their most basic human rights," Grieboski said.
Definitive adoption by MPs of the anti-sect law
Le Monde (01.06.2001) / HRWF International Secretariat (01.06.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The About-Picard draft law "tending to strengthen prevention and repression of sectarian movements", has finally been adopted at the National Assembly by all parliamentary groups unanimously on Wednesday 30 May.
This text, adopted by the senate on second reading on May 3 (Le Monde of May 5), allows the dissolution by a court of justice of legal entitites aiming "at abusing the psychological or physical subjection of persons" that have been condemned definitively repeatedly. It widens the penal responsibility of legal entitites to certain serious offences.
It extends the offense of deceitful abuse of weakness to the situation of persons "in state of psychological or physical subjection resulting from serious and repeated pressures or from techniques which can alter their judgement". Finally, it allows associations fighting against sects, state-recognized of public utility, to be civil parties for the victims.
On behalf of the government, Minister of Justice Marylise Lebranchu asked the parliamentarians to vote for the text already adopted by the senate. The rapporteur of the bill, MP Catherine Picard (Socialist Party, PS), did not hesitate to qualify this text as "world premiere".
The pressure exerted from various sides on the members of the National Assembly did not seem to reach the objective. "We are absolutely delighted that sects are furious" , Philippe Vuilque (PS) declared from the floor. According to him, "the U.S. high administration is poxed by Scientology". MP Jean-Pierre Brard (close to the Communist Party) denounced "an unprecedented campaign of international lobbying by sectarian movements" against the law.
He considered that the intervention of the president of the Bishops' Conference of France, Cardinal Bill, and the president of the Protestant Federation of France, minister De Clermont, who criticized the text of the law in a letter sent to Prime Minister (Le Monde, 23 May), violated "the separation of powers". Ren Andr, representing the RPR group (Right Republican), judged that both religious leaders had "the right and the duty to express their points of view" and that "it would be bad to start with the application of the law by contesting their right".
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French toughen laws on religious sects
by Lisa Bryant
Voice of America (31.05.2001) / HRWF International Secretariat (01.06.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The French parliament Wednesday approved controversial legislation regulating religious groups regarded as sects. The legislation is being criticized by human rights groups and by mainstream religious organizations, as a blow to religious freedom.
France's National Assembly approved the final version of a bill, which would give judges greater authority to crack down on alleged misbehavior of more than 170 religious groups considered sects in France.
The legislation was sparked by a series of bizarre and spectacular deaths staged by members of the Order of the Solar Temple, in the 1990s. Members of the apocalyptic religious group were found dead in what police suspect were murder-suicides in France, Switzerland and Canada. In April, a single French defendant, Michel Tabachnik, went on trial in the French city of Grenoble, for his alleged role in the cult deaths.
But the legislation's many critics say the French parliament has gone too far. The opponents include the targeted groups themselves, including the Quakers, Southern Baptists and Jehovah's Witnesses. But French Catholic and Protestant religious leaders have also expressed concern. They say they fear the legislation may be twisted, to curb religious freedoms. Other critics say the measure could be used to dissolve groups considered to be dangerous sects.
Many are also concerned because they say that while a portion of the legislation that makes mental manipulation a criminal offense was deleted from the final final text, it remains present in spirit and could be misused against unpopular groups.
Human rights organizations and a number of members of the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly also voiced dismay about the bill's potential ramifications. Critics fear it could help fuel a global crackdown on religious expression. The parliamentary assembly members called for the measure's suspension until a report on religious rights in France is completed.
But supporters argue the French legislation will not infringe on religious freedom. Rather, they say, it is merely intended to protect against groups who prey on vulnerable individuals and use coercion to recruit and retain members.
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About-Picard anti-sect law:
Human Rights Without Frontiers
calls for the vote suspension at the National Assembly
Human Rights Without Frontiers shares the concern of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE),
Cardinal Bill and the President of the Protestant Federation of France
HRWF International Secretariat (29.05.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - On the eve of the vote of the About-Picard draft anti-sect law, which will be submitted to the National Assembly for second reading on 30 May, Human Rights Without Frontiers fully supports Declaration nr 321 signed by 50 members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), whereby they express their concern as regards this law and demand the vote suspension until the appointed rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe submits a report on the law assessment.
The document entitled "Freedom of Religion and Religious Minorities in France" (Document 9064 rev.) has been signed by 50 members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) representing almost 30 countries (Albania, Germany, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia, Spain, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, Hungary, Ireland, Island, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, United Kingdom, Russia, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine). The majority of the signatories are members of the socialist party of their respective countries. Human Rights Without Frontiers regrets to note the absence of any French representative among those who have signed.
Alongside the fifty signatories, Human Rights Without Frontiers notes that the draft law could "create religious discrimination in France" and considers that it "could violate international norms and the European human rights standards".
On 6 October 2000, Mr McNamara, a British socialist, submitted a proposal signed by 14 members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, of which 11 socialists, to express their concern as regards this law. The proposal regrets that the About-Picard law qualifies 173 religious groups as "sects", which is a term of negative connotation rejected by the Council of Europe Nastase Report.
Human Rights Without Frontiers fully adheres to the position manifested within the Council of Europe and taken by members of the Parliamentary Assembly calling for the suspension of the vote of the draft law in view of its discriminatory nature and its inherent potential to induce intolerance.
Human Rights Without Frontiers notes with satisfaction that recently some protests against the law have been voiced, notably by the President of the Episcopal Conference of the Catholic Church, Cardinal Bill, the President of the Protestant Federation of France, Jean-Arnold of Clermont. Human Rights Without Frontiers supports their letter addressed to the Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, whereby they express "their reservations" with regard to the About-Picard anti-sect law.
Religious freedom in France: according to the Protestants the USA is poorly informed
Agence France Presse (15.05.2001) / HRWF International Secretariat (23.05.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The president of the French Protestant Federation (FPF), Pastor Jean Arnold de Clermont, stated on Tuesday that the American complaints against France concerning religious freedom were based by and large on poor information.
"The chapter dedicated to France in the State Department report on Religious Freedom in the world is very deficient," he stated and opined that the American administration was relying on biased informants for its accusations against France.
He nevertheless thought it was "quite normal for one country to ask questions of another" regarding the manner and method it respected fundamental freedoms.
At the end of April Pastor de Clermont visited Washington at the invitation of the Institute for Religion and Public Politics for a meeting at which American churches participated.
At an interview with journalists at the close of the session of the Protestant Federation, the FPF President reminded them that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution forbad any intervention by the state into the area of religion. In stressing "the extreme difference of the situation between the two states," he thought it was "completely legitimate for the French administration to be acting legislatively in the area of religion."
Pastor de Clermont also brought up the opposition by the Protestants to the first version of the "About-Picard" legislative proposal against sects. He said the joint mobilization of the FPF and the Catholic Church made it possible "to break the parliamentary consensus" so that the project would continue to be sensibly developed, he added.
The text, past by the Senate in the second session, was discussed in the National Assembly in the second half of May.
Michael Parmly, a representative from the State Department, still expressed the "concern" of the United States regarding this legislative proposal, which threatens religious freedom according to Washington.
In accordance with a law of October 27, 1998, the American State Department is obligated to consider the local status of religious freedom in its relations with foreign states.
Two Christian leaders criticise the new
anti-sect private bill
Mgr. Bill and Minister de Clermont sent a joint letter to Lionel Jospin
Le Monde (22.05.2001) / HRWF International Secretariat (23.05.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The President of the French Conference of Bishops, Cardinal Bill, and that of the Protestant Federation of France, Minister de Clermont, express, in a letter sent to the Prime Minister, their "reserves" about the About-Picard private bill, to be examined in a second reading by the National Assembly on May 30th.
Ecumenism has not only the purpose of bringing Christians together. It can also serve to influence political decisions. The two main leaders of the Catholic and Protestants Churches of France have just sent a joint letter to Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin, to inform him of their "reserves" about the About-Picard private bill against sects, which is to be examined in a second reading by the National Assembly on May 30th (Le Monde, May 5th).
In this letter, of which Le Monde has received a copy, the President of the French Conference of Bishops, Cardinal Louis-Marie Bill, and the President of the Protestant Federation of France, Minister Jean Arnold de Clermont, confirm that they have had "a very positive look at the improvements of this text, notably the abandonment of the offence of mental manipulation ".
Three controversial points
However, the two signatories express reserves on three points of the private bill, which would be, according to them, eventually likely " to lead change the spirit of this law and strike a blow at fundamental liberties ". The religious leaders would like the word "sectarian " to disappear from the title of the law, the notion of sectarian grouping being " legally undefinable ".
Regarding the most controversial article of the About-Picard private bill, which originally established an offence of mental manipulation, the signatories appreciate the text of the members of parliament, which consists in the broadening the offence of a deceitful abuse of state of ignorance or of a situation of weakness.
It is taken into account, in the text adopted by the Senate, the case of " a person in state of psychological or physical subjection resulting from the exercise of grave or repeated pressures or techniques appropriate to alter its judgement, to lead this minor or this person to an act or to an abstinence that are seriously harmful to her ". But the religious leaders wonder, "who will judge of the harmful character " of this act or this abstinence? For them, the interpretation of this article is left open " to the personal appreciation of the judges ": " judgement will be subjected to the fashions, to the variations of time or to outside pressure".
The two signatories also regret that, although the offence of mental manipulation disappeared officially from the private bill, its definition (" to create, to maintain or to exploit psychological subjection ") remains present in Article 1 of the text. " Is there not some other reason for - in the new version of the law - which consisted in "calming" the fears of the religions which spoke against the article concerning mental manipulation, while keeping it explicitly in this article 1? " ask the religious leaders.
Since the About-Picard private bill against "groups of a sectarian character " was adopted in first reading by the National Assembly, on June 22nd, 2000, the representatives of the great religions expressed, repeatedly, their anxieties about the "dangers" that this text would have for freedom of religion. At their request, they had been heard, at the end of 2000, by the Law Commission of the Senate and the Lionel Jospin's cabinet.
For or against sects?
By Max Clos (*)
Le Figaro (25.05.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (28.05.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - In June, 2000, the National Assembly adopted the About Picard bill aimed at regulating sects. The text was voted by the Senate on May 3, with important modifications. It should return, for a second reading, to the French National Assembly, in June.
In 1996,173 organizations had been listed as " dangerous sects " by the National Assembly.
In 1999, Jean-Pierre Chevnement, then Minister of Interior and Elisabeth Guigou, Minster of Justice, had publicly declared their hostility to specific legislation on sects, because of the dangers it could present for the freedom of conscience. The Prime Minister today seems to have a different opinion.
The subject is passionate. We are receiving much mail on the subject. Some are wildly hostile to sects, presented as enterprises of destabilisation of society, guilty of practising a financial racket, others denounce the intolerable attempt to repress freedom of conscience.
The About Picard text established "mental manipulation " as a penal crime, defined as the fact of "within a group of a sectarian character which carries out activities having the effect of creating or maintaining psychological or physical dependence of persons who participate in those activities, of the practice of serious and repeated pressures or to the use of techniques capable of altering one's judgement leading that person, against their will or otherwise, to an act or lack of act, which is seriously harmful to him(her) ".
On the 3rd of May, the Senate refused the term "mental manipulation " considered vague and indistinct and replaced it by "the abuse of ignorance or of weakness of a minor or of a person whose particular vulnerability due to his or her age, to a disease, to an infirmity, to a
physical or psychic deficiency or to a state of pregnancy is visible and known for his(her) author ".
The opponents of the law note that the words change, but that the facts stay. What difference, indeed, between the "mental manipulation" and "abuse of ignorance or of weakness"?
The recognized Churches are very reserved on the project About Picard.
The President of the Protestant Federation of France sees this as "a means of attempting to restrict freedom of thought ".
As for Mgr. Jean Vemette, secretary of the (Catholic) national office "Pastoral, sects and new faiths ", of the Bishops Conference of France, finds that the text would mean establishing a discriminatory criterion based on religious aspects against the principle of secularism of the Constitution. He writes: "Certainly, today, in the current democratic climate in France, life as a noviciate or in closed religious congregations, the practices of access, of wishes of obedience and of poverty, of spiritual direction and of closed groups, are not covered by mental manipulation.
But, tomorrow, the general climate can change and the penal measures stay ?c and the Church could become the victim of the anti - sect fight! "(1)
In September 2000, in a report, the United States State Department formulated serious criticisms against France, accusing it of violating freedom of conscience.
A question arises. It is certainly of the responsibility of the State to punish the offences that a sect could commit. But is it its role to start the war against sects for religious reasons?
Some see there, as Mgr. Vernette thinks, "a tendency towards liberticide which can lead to thought police."
(*) Max Clos is a columnist writing regularly in the newspaper
French "anti-sect" bill controversial
WEF (16.05.2001) HRWF International Secretariat (17.05.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - On May 3rd the French Senate passed its long-debated anti-sect legislation, which many feel could open the door to religious discrimination in Europe. It will now be sent back to the National Assembly to be voted upon again in its final form, where it is widely feared that the legislation will pass and be put into practice within the next few months.
The final disposition of this bill is particularly important because of the precedent that France, as a founding member of the European Union, will set for states in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, who are still in the process of formulating legislation which regulates religious groups and defines religious freedom.
Religious liberty advocates in Europe and the U.S. are concerned about the proposed French law to imprison religious "proselytizers, sects and cults" 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 and Scientologists, among many others.
Power is given to the state to dissolve religious groups and impose sentences of up to 5 years and fines of up to 500,000 French Francs. The bill aims to stamp out dangerous sects and cults in France, but it never defines them adequately. Representatives of many religious groups in France have expressed concern that if this bill is passed it will encourage discrimination on the basis of religious faith. Small independent Protestant groups are particularly concerned.
Last year French Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou defended the bill by calling it "a significant advance giving a democratic state the legal tool to efficiently fight groups abusing its core values." 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. France, Germany, Austria and Belgium set up commissions to list sects, which in Belgium include even the YWCA. However, France is the first to propose legislation making so-called religious "mind control" a crime. No mechanism for dialogue with the government seems to exist, nor does there appear to be a possibility of being removed from the lists.
