Other European editions of Freedom have similarly brought the facts behind modern-day religious inquisitions to the attention of the public. Freedom has exposed unlawful activity by “sect experts” and anti-sect groups which, in some countries, are an arm of the government or the state church. When a member of a peripheral Catholic group in Spain was kidnapped, forced into a psychiatric hospital and force-fed psychiatric drugs because of his religious affiliation, Freedom investigated the persecutors—members of the “anti-sect” group Pro Juventud, which was funded by the Spanish government. After Freedom’s coverage, government funding of the group was abruptly cut.
In an overview of religion in Europe, however, no country better defines a struggle with democratic concepts of religious freedom than Germany. In light of their past violations of human rights and their current ascent to leadership in European and world affairs, Germany’s standing in the religious freedom arena is of no minor importance.
Dr. Stephen Feinstein of the University of Wisconsin articulated the problem when he wrote, in relation to the modern-day disposition of human rights in Germany, “What all of this suggests is that modern Germany, while professing to be a democratic republic with a clean human rights record, has, in fact, one of great contradiction. Nowhere is this more evident than in cases involving many newer religions.”
Freedom has repeatedly documented, in its U.S. and international editions, actions of certain German officials that have squarely placed Germany in non-compliance with European and international conventions on human rights. In-depth coverage of religious discrimination, focusing on the treatment of Scientologists, has helped to educate government, media, human rights leaders and the public on the issue. Freedom has likewise provided a forum for the cause of religious minorities in Germany who are experiencing discrimination and who have been denied a means of speaking out.
Freedom has published boldly on the state of religious freedom in Germany and has never minced words on the issues. As nationally syndicated columnist Alexander Cockburn wrote in The Los Angeles Times following Freedom’s publication of a 1997 edition featuring human rights abuses in Germany: “[T]he Scientologists have just put out an issue of their publication, Freedom, revealing criminal conspiracies—misuse of money, etc., etc.—inside the two major German political parties. The special issue is being put out in a run of 500,000 in English and German.” Cockburn concluded of Freedom and Scientologists: “They don’t give up.”
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