Germany moves to ban Scientology
Tuesday, 14th August 2007
By: George Conger

ATTEMPTS by German states to enact legislation banning Scientology are premature, national political leaders said last week, saying the proposed laws would not survive a court challenge.

Wolfgang Bosbach, the Christian Democratic Union’s deputy leader in the Bundestag, said Germany’s federal intelligence service had not completed its investigations into the group’s activities. "You can't shoot from the hip with a bid to ban it. If an attempt is made it has to be successful," he told Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.

"It's decisive that the organisation be closely monitored, which unfortunately isn't the case today." Social Democrat Sebastian Edathy, chairman of the domestic affairs committee in the Bundestag said he did not “see any realistic chance at the moment to get the organisation banned."

The interior minister of the city-state of Hamburg, Udo Nagel, has called for a ban on Scientology, while Bavaria has enacted legislation to “protect its citizens” from the sect. the rest