Certain segments of German politics and administrative agencies have a disreputable approach to freedom of religion that has been perpetuated for the last 30 or more years and which continues to exist as a festering sore in German society.
The latest judgement from the State Administrative Court of Appeal of Baden-Wurttenberg illustrates this most vividly.
The case involved a skilled electrical technician who had been working in secure areas of German and European airports for many years, with irreproachable conduct and contributing to the security of those airports, who happened to have Scientology as his religion.
He was not disseminating Scientology at his work nor involved in any other questionable conduct but for reasons unknown, his membership of Scientology was made known to the State Air Traffic Security Agency who were tipped off by the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution. This was enough for him to be labelled as “unreliable” for no other reason than his long-term religious beliefs. As a result, he lost his job and decided to sue the state for unfair dismissal.
The judgement in the first instance before the Administrative Court of Stuttgart found that he was unfairly dismissed. The State appealed the decision before the Administrative Court of Appeal of Baden Wurttemberg which, in a decision rendered the 4th of March 2021, consequently dismissed the appeal finding that there was no wrongdoing “neither by the plaintiff himself nor for the Scientology Organization” and that Scientology membership does not forward anti-constitutional endeavours.
Hats off to the German courts, but shame on the state agencies that brought this about. Were this an isolated incident it could, perhaps, be put down to some momentary loss of focus, but it is not. For more than 20 years, Scientology has been the target of state agencies.
One far-reaching result of this being numerous examples where various state government agencies require that people working for the government, or private companies that contract with public bodies must sign a statement that they are not a member of the Church of Scientology, nor will work or associate with members of the church. If you do not sign the statement, then you will not get the job or the company will not be able to engage in government-funded contracts. Even these statements have been struck down by some courts but they still continue to be practiced.
There are, in fact, many documented cases of this. The underbelly of the state encourages these practices – certainly not all sectors, but at least a significant number that maintains a wall of discrimination against members of society simply because of their religious beliefs.
Scientologists have been forced to go to court to fight for their right to practice their religion. Government agencies have consistently attempted to label the practice of Scientology as non-religious, yet again and again, in dozens of court cases over the last 35 years, Scientology has won case after case which has affirmed the practice of Scientology is a bona fide religious belief. Perhaps one of the most notable is the decision in Krüger v. State of Hamburg, where the Hamburg State Administrative Court of Appeal found in 2004 that Scientologists could claim protection of Article 4 of the German Basic Law, which protects the right to freedom of religion or belief.
The Kruger decision became final when the Federal Supreme Administrative Court on December 15, 2005, upheld it, making it clear that Scientology was a genuine religion and that based on facts, “the reprimand of the defendant, that the decision under appeal would be based on an incorrect understanding of these terms because the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard about the world as a whole as well as to the origin and aim of human life would lack elements in the meaning of transcendental or immanent relations, is unfounded.”
It cannot be a sign of a healthy democracy that this has been happening for so long. Surely it is a symptom of a disease that should be excised before the body is riddled with its cancer. The surgeons of the State, here the courts, and thanks to them, have kept the illness at bay – but for how long must this go on?
And let not us Europeans attempt to sweep this dirty laundry under the carpet (to mix metaphors). After all, if we as a proclaimed seat of democracy, allow such illness to perpetuate we are in a weakened moral position to make pronouncements on others.
In the interests of transparency, I must declare a self-interest here. I am a Scientologist. I openly declare it! I am also the Director of an interfaith group in the UK which has members from many religions. This group is the national member body of the UK’s Interfaith Network which is supported by the UK government and is an umbrella grouping of interfaith activity around the UK. I also have direct experience of the extent of discrimination in Germany and so I know what I am talking about.
Of course, my religion should not matter, or Christians writing about discrimination of Christians around the world or Jews opposing Jewish hate crimes would not be able to speak out either. But if I were living in Germany, I would likely be dismissed and pilloried for stating the above.
It is surely time that the entrenched political influence and the completely unconscionable actions of the State Security Services were far more intensely placed under a microscope by the international community – certainly by other European countries and the European Union in particular where pronouncements on religious freedom violations around the world are quite rightly made by a range of Freedom of Religion or Belief Special Envoys and appointees but for various reasons refrain from speaking about discrimination issues closer to home.