freedom of conscience

***Georges Fenech snubbed***

Georges Fenech wanted to issue a new list of “sects” at any price, but being aware of the opposition it might spur, he modestly called it a “referential”. Matignon (Prime Minister’s Mansion) has just snubbed him by refusing its publication. It will only be available to “professionals” who request it. Nevertheless, let’s not have any illusions: When one sees how little notice is given to the confidentiality of an inquiry in France, no one could believe that the famous list will remain long time in the only hands of “professionals”.

In February 2008, French news papers Le Parisien, Le Canard Enchaîné and Le Monde reported that Fenech’s project of a sects list had spurred strong opposition within the Government.  On February 13, the newspaper Le Parisien revealed the wrestling between the Chairman of the Miviludes and the Minister of the interior, Michèle Alliot-Marie in the following terms:

“Last week, Matignon has actually received a letter from Michèle Alliot-Marie, requesting François Fillon to “frame” the action of the Miviludes, after its chairman at the end of January, had issued the idea of a new orientation for its mission’s policy”. Rather than a new orientation, in reality, Georges Fenech wants above all to issue a list, after the one established by the 1995 commission of parliamentary inquiry which made France appear abroad as a religious freedom killer.  (…) At Place Beauvau (Ministry of the Interior), unearthing the tenet of a “black list” doesn’t get through. (…) Facing this change of course of the Miviludes without any previous consultation, the Minister of the interior, in her letter to François Fillon, states her “astonishment” and harshly denounces the step. Infringement on freedom of conscience, going backwards, having France weakened on the European and international scenes and pinned down by the US State Department and the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) on its intransigence on religious freedom. According to a well informed observer, “the disagreement comes from the list”.

Le Canard would state on February 18 2009: “Chairman of the Miviludes Georges Fenech got rapped on his knuckles by both Fillon and Alliot-Marie. Motif: He wanted to establish a list of sects operating in France. A dangerous exercise, subject to abuses and to being sentenced by various international courts. As for Le Monde, in its April 6 2009 article “Fight against Sects”, it stated: “Georges Fenech tendencies still spur concerns”, Journalist Stéphanie le Bars wrote on the list’s project: “Same reservations at the Ministry of the Interior, which in the name of religious freedom prefers policy directed towards law enforcement of proven penal offences rather than stigmatisation of potential sectarian movements. […] ».

It is interesting to point out that this idea of a government “sects list” was developed for the first time in the mind of the Nazis. On February 28 1933 the government of the Third Reich headed by Adolph Hitler established a list of “sects” banned in the name of “the protection of the people and the State”. Among these banned movements were the Jehovah ***Witnesses, the Anabaptists, the Adventists of the seventh day and the Pentecostal Churches. We know G. Fenech’s dislike of the Jehovah Witnesses. On September 2008 the newspaper la Croix, depicted this aversion in the following terms: “On a wholly different sphere, it is George Fenech’s attitude about potential sectarian movements which is disturbing. In 2006 he was the Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry on the Influence of Sects on Minors.  When issuing its report, the Commission indulged in a real prosecutor’s speech against the government, accusing it of negligence, openly suspecting the Worships Bureau of leniency towards the Jehovah Witnesses, putting forth alarming and unverifiable figures on the number of children being brought up within a sectarian context. For sociologist Raphaël Liogier, Chairman of the Aix en Provence Observatory of Religions, the new Chairman of the Miviludes is “a man ever engaged in a crusade against new religious movements which he deems dangerous because of their eccentricities” According to Claude Baty, Chairman of the French Protestant Federation, “he has an inquisitorial vision of the fight against sects”.

What a pity for Georges Fenech that we are still in democracy and that justice might still have the last word!

Source  : http://scientologuescontreladiscrimination.com/2009/07/31/un-camouflet-pour-georges-fenech/