n September 1997, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance visited Germany on an official fact-finding visit to investigate reports of religious discrimination. In his report, published in Spring 1998, he established that religious minorities including Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims, Bahais, the Unification Church and especially the Church of Scientology face a climate of intolerance and distrust kept alive by state publications and directives as well as by the media. The Special Rapporteur recommended that “the state, beyond day-to-day management, must implement a strategy to prevent intolerance in the field of religion and belief... sustained efforts are required to promote and develop a culture of tolerance and human rights.”
The German, conservative government, which is traditionally closely allied to the old-established churches, had in recent years encountered strong criticism of its human rights practices. More than twenty human rights reports, including every U.S. State Department annual human rights survey since 1993, have censured the German government for religious discrimination. Members of minority religions in Germany are routinely dismissed and screened from public and private employment, dismissed and screened from political parties, denied the right to contract with the government, denied the right to perform their art and denied the right to use public facilities and concert halls. Their children experience harassment and intimidation, and sometimes even dismissal from schools and kindergartens.
Because of Germany’s central importance in Europe and the depth to which government-instigated religious intolerance has penetrated the fabric of German society, the European Journey ended with a religious freedom rally in Frankfurt. This followed a series of events in south Germany that received wide attention from officials and the media and acted as a salutary reaffirmation of the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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