GERMANY stepped up its official campaign against the Church of Scientology yesterday by ordering intelligence services to place the sect under surveillance.
Interior ministers from the country's 16 federal states meeting in Bonn agreed to coordinate action against the group, arguing that Scientology was not a religion but a ruthless, moneymaking enterprise. The decision means that the intelligence services will now be allowed to tap the telephones of Scientologists and plant agents inside the organisation.
The interior ministers denied Germany was leading a witchhunt against Scientologists and claimed there was evidence that the organisation represented a threat to internal security. "With Scientology there are clues of efforts against the basic liberal democratic order and, therefore, the legal prerequisite [exists] for an observation of the organisation by the intelligence services," said the interior ministry of Mecklenburg Vorpommern.
German Scientologists protested against the decision in Bonn yesterday and vowed to challenge it in court. The latest move is sure to cause tension - between Germany and the US. Scientologists such as the actor Tom Cruise and the musician Chick Corea have already been targeted for boycotts in Germany.
