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From: German_Scn_News <german_scn_news@hotmail.com>
Subject: Attempt to defame human rights committee member
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2000 21:12:40 -0400
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.96.1000906210602.141A-100000@darkstar.zippy>
Fanatical Activism Scientology is defaming Thomas Gandow, the cult commissioner of the Evangelical Church. Reason: the bestowal of an award to an opponent of Scientology.
Gandow taking legal steps.
Berlin, Germany
September 5, 2000
taz
by Barbara Bollwahn de Paez Casanova
For several weeks Scientology has being going to great
expense to mobilize against the cult commissioner of the
Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenbrug, Thomas
Gandow. On his birthday, August 18, glossy brochures
were distributed with the daily mail in Zehlendorf. In
them, Gandow, who has been involved in cults since the
end of the 1970s and who has been cult commissioner
of the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg since
1992, was defamed as "chief inquisitor," "anti-cult
commissioner," "notorious exorcist of belief," and "chief
architect for the discrimination campaigns against
religious and weltanschauung communities and their
members in parts of Europe." One week later, residents
of Steglitz found the same brochure in their mail. In
addition, Scientology Church Germany with its offices in
Munich demanded Gandow's immediate dismissal from
state Bishop Wolfgang Huber for "fanatical activism."
The occasion for the attacks was the first "Alternative
Charlemagne Award" given out by the
"European-American Citizens Committee for Human
Rights and Religious Freedom in the USA," of which
Gandow is a member as a private individual, in June in
Leipzig. The reason: The award went to U.S. American
Robert Minton, a proven opponent of Scientology. The
award took place as a counter-presentation to the
granting of the "Charlemagne Award" to U.S. President
Bill Clinton, whose liberal attitude towards Scientology
is controversial.
Minton, who worked as a debt regulator for the
Nigerian government, is the founder and financier of a
private incorporated organization in the USA which
supports and makes legal referrals to people who have
been adversely affected by Scientology - thereby being
a thorn in the side of the Scientologists. Therefore they
never pass up an opportunity to describe him as a
"white-collar criminal" and to described the citizens
committee as a "front organization directed by the state
church to fight minority religions."
As far as Gandow is concerned, the campaign against
him is a symptom of the cult's financial difficulties,
"They're worried because their sales have dropped
dramatically." Scientology sees an "archenemy" in the
Evangelical Church in Germany, which has been issuing
warnings about Scientology for many years in its
handbook of religious communities. It is plain to him
that, "I am being attacked because of my efforts against
Scientology."
The Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg stands
completely behind its cult commissioner. Press
spokesman Reinhard Lampe stated, "We are decisively
against all attempts to defame the work of the cult
commissioner." He says Scientology is "sensitive"
because the Evangelical Church is providing information
about a group "which pretends to be religious, but which
uses methods which violates human rights." In the
meantime, Thomas Gandow is taking legal measures
against Scientology for asserting false statements and for
insult to person.
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