RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN EUROPE Prof. Massimo Introvigne Center for Studies
on New Religions (CESNUR) Turin, Italy
We reproduce here a public domain text (whose publication does not require any authorization in order to be published), i.e. a report submitted to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (the Helsinki Commission) and the U.S. House International Relations Committee. We had previously attached to this text a FAQ on Scientology, obviously not authored by Dr. Introvigne. We apologize to Dr Introvigne for the confusion our previous publication may have created.
December 1, 1997
When, in the United States, it is suggested that religious
liberty should become an issue in foreign relations, immediate
references are to Asian or African countries such as China, North
Korea, or Sudan. Former Soviet bloc countries in Eastern Europe,
including Russia, have been added to the list. Scholars of minority
religions, however, know that serious problems also exist in some
countries of Western Europe. Some cases are becoming very well
known. There are, among others: the inclusion of Reverend Sun Myung
Moon, the founder of the Unification Church, in the so-called
Schengen list (preventing persons allegedly dangerous to the public
order from entering a number of European countries), and the extreme
measures advocated in Germany against the Church of Scientology.These cases, unfortunately, are not simply exceptions to a
general rule of religious tolerance. Pentecostal Churches, Roman
Catholic organizations, Jewish groups and many other religious
minorities face discrimination in a number of Western European
countries, including France, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland.
Greece, meanwhile, by keeping in its constitution a provision that
outlaws proselytism on behalf of any religion other that the Greek
Orthodox Church, has apparently not yet decided whether, in
religious liberty matters, it really wants to belong to the West.