Nicolas
Sarkozy, his ex wife Cecilia and actor Tom
Cruise
meet at the French Finance Ministry in 2004.
Le Monde, France
Scientology May
Have a Friend in Sarkozy
"After a 10-year-investigation, the case is solid. Yet Scientology has expressed confidence. And what's the reason for such optimism? A surprising request for dismissal by the public prosecutor ... In 2004, Sarkozy met Scientology ambassador Tom Cruise - to talk about the cinema, of course. That same minister [Sarkozy was finance minister] published a book calling for a more tolerant secularism, where the word 'sect' wouldn't be used 'left, right and center.'"
By Caroline Fourest
Translated By Sandrine Ageorges
May 29, 2009
France - Le Monde - Original Article (French)
The trial that began in
Paris on May 25th is a test to determine whether France remains a country that
is particularly diligent about a reversion to sectarianism or whether it's letting
down its guard. One may recall the ambiguous statement by Emmanuelle Mignon,
the former chief of staff to the president, which has since been deemphasized:
“Sects are a non-issue.”
This is not the opinion
held by the victims of Scientology,
for example a hotel maid who spent over $29,800 [€21,000] in just a few months on
“life reparation classes,” sauna sessions, vitamins and an “electrometer”
supposed to measure the “zones of spiritual imperfections.”
The spokesman for Scientology
screams that this is a “trial of heresy.” But the case has nothing to do with
secularism or the Inquisition.
It is simply a way of discovering whether this organization, supposedly a
non-profit, has a monomaniacal tendency to prey on the psychological
vulnerability of certain individuals in order to empty their bank accounts.
That makes it hard to call it a religion, nor really a business, but rather a combination
of the two with mafia-like and coercive overtones. These last two aspects make
all the difference.
If the Parish of
Lourdes began to sell small bottles of holy water at the price of caviar,
and if priests were trained to sell large amounts to every granny passing the
door - risking driving them to ruin - the parish would be worthy of being
regarded as a sect. If, on top of that, the priest and his choir children were
to govern their lives with the purpose of pulling the wool over people's eyes [defrauding
people] for the price of a Rolex … we would have to condemn them for engaging
in a "vast organized conspiracy."
That is what's at stake in
this trial. In the long term, the association that represents Scientology in France could be dissolved under
the About-Picard Law,
which was passed in 2001 with the goal of containing sectarian movements by creating
the crime of "fraudulent abuse of a state of ignorance or weakness.”
Posted by
WORLDMEETS.US
After ten years of investigation,
the case is solid. Yet Scientology has expressed confidence. And what's the
reason for such optimism? A surprising request for dismissal by the public prosecutor
at the end of the court investigation [a sign that the Sarkozy government isn't
too happy about pursuing the case. The court dismissed the request. French courts operate under the Napoleonic Code rather than English common law, from which the U.S. derives its legal code]. That doesn’t mean that the district attorney's
office won't change its mind after the trial is over. And it did agree that the
National Union of Organizations in Defense of Families and Individuals constitutes
a civil party to the case [the group, which is known for battling cults and
sects, has been permitted to be a plaintiff in the case].
But this indictment - rightly or wrongly - is suspected of reflecting
a certain lenient political will. This brings us back to 2006. This was a time that
the Interior Minister wanted show more benevolence toward such sectarian
movements. That was a real change from previous years, during which Nicolas
Sarkozy held that office [2002-2004, 2005-2007].
In 2003, members of the Interministerial
Mission for Monitoring and Combating Cultic Deviances recall having attended a
seminar where the lawyer for the Jehovah's Witnesses and Danièle Gounord, spokesperson
for Scientology, had dinner with a representative of the Interior Ministry's
Religious Affairs Bureau [Sarkozy was interior minister]. The same year, Arnaud Palisson, an intelligence
service official who published a thesis on Scientology. Palisson was shelved at the
request of the sect.
SEE ALSO ON THIS:
Liberation, France:
Court May 'Dissolve' Scientology in France
Bild am Sonntag, Germany:
Scientology Seeks to 'Gain Power' in Germany
The courtesy continued at
the Finance Ministry, where Nicolas Sarkozy agreed to meet with Scientology
ambassador Tom Cruise - to talk about the cinema, of course. That same minister
[Sarkozy was briefly finance minister in 2004] published a book calling for a more tolerant secularism, where the
word “sect” wouldn't be used “left, right and center.” He wrote that it isn't a
matter of battling sects, but only against “drifting toward sectarianism."
Less out of indulgence
than to import a more American vision of religious freedom, where the freedom
to manipulate is confused with the freedom to worship and which takes priority over
vigilance. There is nothing to suggest that priorities have changed since.
CLICK HERE FOR FRENCH
VERSION
[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US June 1, 2:09pm]
