The Belgian weekly Humo (primarily a TV listings magazine, but with some serious journalism as a bonus feature) in its October 14th issue published an article about "Cults in Flanders" (issue No. 3293, p. 18-23). Most of the article consists of testimonials from victims of cults other than Scientology, but there is a general introduction which includes a short interview with Eric Brasseur, the head of the agency IACSSO, "Informatie- en adviescentrum inzake schadelijke sektarische organisaties", which means "Centre for information and advice on harmful cults". It is commonly referred to as the Cult Observatory (maybe "Cult-Watch" could serve as a more succinct translation), and is the government agency set up a few years ago to keep track of cults operating in Belgium, and provide family members and other government agencies with information. What follows is my attempt at a translation of the passages mentioning Scientology and a few general comments I thought of interest. My additions/clarifications are in square brackets, stuff in round brackets is in the original.

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In 1997, the report of the parliamentary commission of inquiry into cults listed 189 religious groups: from obscure groups such as the Knights of the Golden Lotus [my translation, maybe they have a different official English name] or the Group for the Veneration of the Crying Madonna of Bohan [ditto], to notorious cults operating worldwide, such as Opus Dei and the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Today, the Cult Observatory (IACSSO, "Centre for information and advice on harmful cults") counts some 250 groups, among them a noticeable number of evangelical and Protestant newcomers which have drifted in from English-speaking countries. The Jehovah's Witnesses remains the largest (24,000 members) as well as the best-organised cult.

[...]

The Observatory gets about 200 requests for information from the public each month (one third of them about the Witnesses), six times more than last year, even though it doesn't conduct any media campaigns and is hardly known. "We deliberately keep a low profile", say its director Eric Brasseur. "If we didn't, we'd spend all our time dealing with lawyers for religious groups. Some cults even continue to exist _thanks_ _to_ their court cases, because that's how they get media coverage. We're not in the business of helping them with that."

ERIC BRASSEUR: "Creating media spectacles is part of how they operate, especially with groups that have very few members. Take the Raelians, who got into the news last year with their cloned babies. They don't even have a hundred members here, they don't even come close to that. I'm also thinking of Scientology, which put on a media spectacle when they opened their new church in the Wetstraat. [The Wetstraat/Rue de la Loi in Brussels is Belgium's best-known street. It's where the federal parliament and the offices of the federal prime minister are located, among many other Belgian and European political institutions, and pretty much all of those institutions which aren't in the street itself are located within easy walking distance. Brasseur is being somewhat inaccurate here: he's referring to that so-called human rights centre Scientology opened a few months ago, apparently to lobby EU organisations, it's not a Scientology church as such AFAIK.] They were only trying to create the _impression_ that they're a large organisation. With their Belgian members they couldn't even fill their own small meeting room, so they brought in a bunch of followers from other countries."

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HUMO: According to professor Anne Morelli of the ULB [Université Libre de Bruxelles] your agency decides which religions are or aren't legitimate. She considers it discrimination.

BRASSEUR: "We definitely aren't some kind of conscience police. Most of the telephone calls we get are from people who have a family member whose behaviour has changed radically since joining some group. We reply in writing, listing the problems that are known to exist with that particular group, and for that information we rely exclusively on official documents and identifiable sources."

"Lobbyists for religious groups often knowingly spread false information about us to serve a fundamentalist, political agenda. They assume names that are supposed to give them an air of credibility," (Brasseur is thinking, among others, of Human Rights without Frontiers, ed.) "and use terms like United Nations, Helsinki or human rights. That way, they create the impression that they're official organisations. It's a strategy that works, because often their 'findings' become a source for professors or authorities. If we are to believe them, Belgium is constantly engaging in religious discrimination, there is a witch hunt going on against cults here, and members are regularly being harassed by the police. That simply isn't to be taken seriously. We respect the freedom of religion to a greater extent than other countries, and Belgium was among the first to grant legal recognition to some religions, such as Islam. The most absurd thing is that some groups complain that they're not legally recognised, when in fact they don't even _want_ to be. Do you think Scientology ever even applied for official recognition? They simply don't want any legal status, because that would mean they'd have to publish their accounts."

[Brasseur is referring to the fact that Belgium has a number of officially recognised religions, whose working costs, most notably the wages of its ministers and the upkeep of its buildings, are borne by the state. Of course, in return this means that all their financial affairs become available for public scrutiny.]

There doesn't seem to be much of a witch hunt against cults, as far as we [i.e., Humo] can tell. At this point in time, exactly three court cases are underway: against the group Spiritual Human Yoga (illegal medical practices, embezzlement), the Tibetan Buddhist group Ogyen Kunzan Chöling (sexual abuse of minors), and Scientology; recently nine leading members of Scientology were charged with creating a criminal organisation [this is my approximation of the Belgian legal term "bendevorming", which is literally "forming a gang". I think it also carries elements of what in English or US law would be called conspiracy, but IANAL, and I don't a have a specialist legal dictionary at hand], fraud, violation of privacy laws, and the illegal practice of medicine.

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