he booklet’s title: “InSects—No Thanks.” The cover illustration shows insects about to be crushed by a strong hand wielding a flyswatter. The sponsor—the Young Union of the Christian Democratic Union.
The depiction of religions as insects is an example of the abusive modern-day propaganda which today’s politicians and the media direct at all belief systems which differ from the contracted and “state-approved” German religions. Produced in February 1993 by the CDU’s Young Union, the “Insect Booklet” received formal CDU sanction at a convention where it was promoted by party Secretary General, Peter Hintze. Hintze is a Christian theologian who has emerged as a prominent voice in the assault on minority religions. Appendix Q
By then, the CDU’s hate campaign against the Church of Scientology had become an all-out assault. In December 1991, at its annual convention in Dresden, the CDU resolved that membership in the Church of Scientology was incompatible with membership in the CDU and banned all Scientologists from the party. Since then, other political parties have followed suit, and today, if you happen to be one of the German citizens who are Scientologists, you are denied participation in the country’s political processes.
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| Left, Joseph Goebbels, German Nazi Propaganda Minister. Right, Norbert Blüm, current German Minister of Labor. |
Such actions directly violate the German Constitution, which mandates that regardless of race, color or creed, all citizens shall have their rights:
Article 3:3: “No one may be discriminated against because of his sex, his heritage, his race, his language, his birthplace, his beliefs, his religious or political ideologies.”
Article 4:1: “The freedom of faith, of conscience, and the freedom of religious and ideological beliefs are inviolable.”
Article 4:2: “The undisturbed practice of religion is guaranteed.”
These rights are also guaranteed by international covenants to which Germany is a signatory.
To circumvent the accusation that its treatment of Scientology violates the Constitution and its international commitments, the German government has ignored more than 25 decisions by its own courts which rule that Scientology is a religion, and hundreds of expertises, government adjudications and court findings in other countries which have also upheld the religious bona fides of the Church. Among the most significant of these is the October 1993 ruling by the world’s most powerful tax agency, the United States Internal Revenue Service, that Scientology is “organized and operated exclusively for religious and charitable purposes.”
