Laudatio by Ursula Caberta
Director of the Work
Group on Scientology
Hamburg Interior Ministry
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Bob Minton,
It is a great honor and pleasure for me to be here in
Leipzig
today, and to address the European-American Citizens Committee for Human
Rights
and Religious Freedom.
And there is a special reason for this: the place -
Leipzig!
As a person who grew up in a divided Germany, it is
sometimes
still incomprehensible to me that it is completely normal now to drive to
Leipzig.
East Germany used to be an area more unfamiliar to me than Spain or
Denmark. I
still experience a feeling of well-being in this regard, be it in Berlin,
Schwerin,
Jena or Dresden. And my joyful appreciation is due in large measure to the
people
of the city of Leipzig. These people no longer wanted the Stasi-state of
the DDR;
they rose up to claim freedom of speech and freedom of opinion to freely
develop
their own personalities. They made a decision for human rights and for
freedom
of belief. They have made such a large contribution to the reunification
of
Germany.
For this I thank you!
And it is exactly for this reason that this city is of
special
significance in the granting of the alternative Charlemagne Award.
Because it is for those ideals to which the people in
Leipzig
have dedicated themselves that the Committee today bestows the alternative
Charlemagne
Award.
One would really think that, in a liberal democracy with
elected
representatives, in a functioning legal state, the dangers from
totalitarian organizations
are rather slight. I am actually convinced of that - and that is also how
things
are in fact. A democratic state and the people who live in it have many
alternatives
in defending themselves. So what happens? Anti-democratic ideas and
cynical
ideals
under the guise of a supposed church appear. From a country which
proclaims
personal
rights of freedom such as no other in the world - the USA. This new form
of
political
extremism has a name: Scientology!
The system of Scientology operates according to a
political ideology
which jeopardizes democracies all over the world. L. Ron Hubbard and his
successor
have used their organization to create a state within a state. Scientology
proclaims
the freedom of the individual, but deliberately creates servitude.
Hubbard's statements
are nothing other than operating instructions as one would find in war.
They may
realize that or they may not: all methods utilized by Scientology serve
the
waging
of war:
- camouflage by religion
- pseudotherapeutic measures in courses and seminars
- psychomanipulative techniques in "auditing"
- presentation of self as a persecuted minority
- assimilation of celebrities for purposes of advertising
and
dissemination
"The war is over," announced David Miscavige after the tax
exemption
agreement was reached with the IRS (U.S. tax authorities). If proof had
previously
been lacking for this theory that war is being waged, then that statement
makes
it clear to all. Clear to all who want to listen.
But here in Europe we have taken note that that there are
those
in the United States of America who either did not want to listen or did
not want
to understand. After the Scientology-IRS tax agreement, a number of their
political
representatives - how should I put it - either without reflection or
simply
uninformed,
took up the war strategy of the Scientology Organization. When Scientology
began
its unspeakable campaign of defamation against the Federal Republic of
Germany
which its public relations described as the beginning of a new Holocaust,
many
in Germany, including me, hoped their campaign would lead to protests. The
campaign
presented not only a disparagement to representatives of this Republic,
but
also
an insult to the victims of Nazi Germany. Unfortunately, however, it did
not lead
to people in the USA contemplating why their country had previously
maintained
a critical attitude towards Scientology.
No - just the opposite: just recently, during our newly
elected
Federal President Johannes Rau's visit to the USA, he was compelled to
make
a
statement on the Scientology Organization. He did that - as could be read
afterwards
in the "Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung" (FAZ) newspaper - very graciously
and
unequivocally.
Now it is conceivable that the Germans are not far
behind.
The
President of the United States, Bill Clinton, will be presented with the
Charlemagne
Award. An award that is meant to distinguish people who promote democracy,
human
rights and the common values of Europe. It is not that I do not wish him
to
have
this award, but in view of the cynical practices in Scientology, in view
of
the
many victims of this organization in the USA and worldwide, and in view of
the
described - cautiously stated - uncritical assumption of the Scientology
Organization's
arguments against European states, like France and the Federal Republic of
Germany,
it is time send a clear signal. A signal that there are also people in the
USA
itself who follow the assessment of the European states regarding the
Scientology
Organization. Enough to reinforce us in Europe in our discussion and in
our
informational
work.
For this reason, we today bestow an alternative
Charlemagne Award.
And we bestow it full of pleasure and pride in a citizen of the United
States
of America who did not intend to accept that it was possible, in his home
country,
for an organization to silence all its victims and opponents. A U.S.
citizen who
took action for equal rights in the U.S., who recognized what dangers
could
arise
for a liberal democracy and its people from Scientology.
Dear Bob Minton, your involvement in the USA is
exemplary.
Your
activity - not least of all, the founding of the Lisa McPherson Trust -
has
given
us hope again in Europe. Hope that it may one day be made clear in the USA
how
dangerous Scientology is. Hope that the political representatives of your
country
understand that totalitarian systems insidiously spread their ideology
over
the
heads of their manipulated members. Probably - no, I am sure of it - it is
more
difficult in the States to point out the dangers than it is in Europe; we
have
been there before. Especially in Germany. Based on our past, we know one
thing:
never again do we intend to live in a system in which the dignity of a
person
is not respected, in which freedom of religion and freedom of belief are
restricted.
This is what would happen to the extent that Scientology reaches its
political
goal of "Clear Planet," i.e., a planet purged of people who think
differently.
In the USA, you are helping to keep that from happening. For this, we
would
like
to thank you, to wish you strength and courage, to tell you that this
award
is
an expression of our respect and also that you, and all those who defend
human
rights and freedom of opinion in the USA from Scientology, can always
count
on
us here in Europe. |