EuroCult Report <german_scn_news@hotmail.com>r;
Cult commissioner: Scientology using front groups
As reported by ddp-nrw on August 7, 2002 from Duesseldorf, Germany
According to expert opinion, Scientology continues to be
active in Nordrhein-Westfalen, but operates mainly
through front groups. After its internationally orchestrated
negative publicity campaign against the Federal Republic
of Germany in the 1990s, the organization has had a
change of strategy and is conducting its business from the
sidelines, reported the cult commissioner of the
Evangelical Church in Rheinland, Andrew Schaefer, in an
interview with the ddp news agency in Duesseldorf.
The organization had already been using a "shunting
system" in public to gain new members and become
socially acceptable, the cult commissioner continued. He
said that lately the organization, for example, has been
boosting its sub-organization KVPM (the German
equivalent of CCHR) as a self-help group in opposition
to use of Ritalian.
The cult commissioner's impression is that these self-help
groups are then used to further the real objectives of the
Scientology organization. He said there are plenty of
other sub-divisions of Scientology that do this sort of
thing, like NARCONON and CRIMINON for alleged
drug therapy and social re-integration programs.
Schaefer stressed that it was not easy to make an
estimate of how strong Scientology was, and he warned
about overstating it. At the same time people had to be
aware of the possibility of running into Scientologists in
business or in politics. He said that there were several
companies in the greater Cologne and Duesseldorf
vicinities that used mild pressure on their employees to
take Scientology courses. He said members of the
Duesseldorf State Assembly regularly received mail from
Scientology, and that there was a danger that the
organization could gain influence over the long term.
Schaefer said precise figures on the number of
Scientologists in Nordrhein-Westfalen were not available,
but that the German Homeland Security thought there
were about 400 practicing Scientologists in NRW, with 6,000
nationwide. The cult commissioner was somewhat
skeptical of their numbers. He also stated that people
who were experiencing a trying situation in their personal
or professional life were most susceptible to enticements
from Scientology, and that this especially applied to
people who were not yet settled down yet.
Schaefer said that if you suspect someone of being a
Scientologist, it was better to turn to a trained
professional for help. He emphasized that it was better to
clear up suspicion than it was to sow mistrust.
www.ekir.de
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Surreptitiously infiltrating society
23 Aug 2002
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