c. 1999 Religion News Service
UNDATED _ The Council of Europe’s parliamentary body has recommended creation of a central Europe clearing house to keep tabs on”dangerous sects,”a move one religious freedom advocate said could serve as a pretext in some nations for expanding ongoing campaigns against minority faiths _ many of them imports from the United States.
Meeting in Strasbourg, France, the council’s 286-member Parliamentary Assembly voted unanimously by a show of hands Tuesday (June 22) to call for a”European Observatory”that would gather information on”groups of a religious, esoteric or spiritual nature.” The information would be made available to the council’s 41-member nations as they seek to”ensure that the activities of these groups … are in keeping with the principles of our democratic societies.” The recommendation also urged individual European nations to open national information centers, to add information on”important schools of thought and of religion”to school curricula and to create”non-governmental”aid organizations for”the victims”of suspect groups,”particularly in Eastern and Central Europe.” A report submitted with the recommendation said the proposal grew out of the rise across Europe in recent years of”sects and new religions.”The report said”the number of people joining sects is rising constantly.” In addition, the report noted the need to head off further”serious disturbances of law and order”and”carnage”associated in recent years with groups such as Japan’s Aum Shinri Kyo cult and the Order of the Solar Temple in France and Switzerland.
The report also said a number of groups have successfully established themselves in Russia and other formerly communist nations since the fall of the Soviet Union, prompting government backlashes. Great Britain’s David Atkinson _ mentioning Baptist, Pentecostal and evangelical Protestant groups _ said”these so-called evangelistic missions usually originate abroad, notably in the United States.” The recommendation takes pains to stress the assembly’s concerns stem from the illegal actions and not the beliefs of religious movements. Although activities were not defined in the recommendation, assembly members speaking before the vote cited keeping children out of government-approved schools, child labor, prostitution, eschewing”proper medical care for the ill in the name of rigid religious rules,”and”taking away the rights of their victims in the name of fake spiritual values.””The assembly reaffirms its commitment to freedom of conscience and religion,”Romanian representative Adrian Nastase said in presenting the resolution to the assembly.”It recognizes religious pluralism as a natural consequence of freedom of religion.” Such assurances, said Willy Fautre, the Brussels-based director of Human Rights Without Frontiers, could be seen as a rejection of the government-backed”attacks”on new or minority religions that freedom of religion advocates have cited in France, Belgium, Germany or Russia.
Fautre said he was also bouyed by the calls for dialogue with suspect groups and the need for independent assessments of religious movements free of government control included in the assembly’s recommendation.
However, he also voiced concern that some governments will seize on the recommendation as justification for their”anti-cult hysteria in which they condemn all groups as equally destructive and without merit.” Groups that prefer to assert tight control over the education of children could come in for added scrutiny under the assembly’s proposal, which stressed the”obligation to enroll children”in government-approved schools.”Home schooling is quite marginal in Europe and a group already under a cloud will have a hard time getting government permission to open an approved school,”Fautre said in an interview.”The mentality in much of Europe is you send your child to a public school or a recognized Catholic or Protestant one, period.” A council-provided English-language summary of the debate revealed widespread concern that many minority religious groups new to Europe are nothing more than fronts for illegal activities.”Some groups of people claim to be members of a new church but are interested only in business or are guilty of rape and fraud,”said Lazlo Surjan of Hungary. “Many new sects had been formed solely for criminal and illegal purposes and hid behind the veil of the right to freedom of expression in order to perpetuate fraud,”added Jordi Sole Tura of Spain.
The recommendation now goes to the council’s Committee of Ministers for further action. The committee is comprised of the foreign ministers of the council’s member nations. The council was founded after World War II to promote democracy and human rights in Europe.
In addition to”legitimate concern”growing out of cult violence, Fautre said opposition to new or minority faiths in Europe is also a result of established churches wanting to protect themselves from competition from abroad and secularists opposed to all forms of religious belief.
DEA END RIFKIN
