by Merudevi Dasi
The French National Assembly voted on 3rd May in favor of a controversial new law that is designed to "reinforce the repression of groups with a sectarian character." The bill has met with a considerable amount of criticism, notably from the Catholic and the Protestant Churches, the US State Department, and the Council of Europe. Pope John Paul II has also expressed his concerns on the state of affairs in regards to religious freedom in France.
The law has the potential to dissolve any organization if the organization or its leaders have a single legal conviction. Whilst the entire Catholic Church in France could be dissolved by this decree, the reality is that this law will target any minority group labeled by the French government as a "cult." Many religious and spiritual organizations in France, including mainstream Christian groups such as the Baptist Church, as well as practitioners of alternative medicine, are under threat by this law.
The authors of the bill claim to protect individual rights of French citizens, but the bill itself raises a number of serious questions. Who decides what is an acceptable belief and what is of "harmful character"? Furthermore, how can a law be compatible with basic democratic principles when its application is entirely subjective?
Cardinal Bill, President of the French Catholic Conference of Bishops, and Reverend de Clermont, President of the Protestant Churches of France, have both expressed their "reservations" about the law in a letter to the French prime minister. They fear that the proposal will threaten "fundamental liberties" and that the bill could be "subjected to trends, variations of time, or to outside pressure." They also question the ambiguous nature of the bill, for it’s directed towards "sectarian groups," which is "legally indefinable."
Hong Kong is now expected to write a similar bill, which they would use to ban Falun Gong, a Chinese health and meditation movement. They have been waiting for the French Parliament to adopt its bill before composing their own.
Merudevi Dasi, Deputy Director of the Vaishnava Communications Institute, fears that the Bill will "act as a dangerous precedent for other countries wishing to adopt repressive measures against religious minorities. Eastern Europe is especially at risk, as many of these countries are in the process of changing their religious laws."
Merudevi Dasi,
Vaishnava Communications Institute,
Tel: (01865) 304311
Email: merudevi@iskcon.org.uk
External Links
Center for Studies on New Religions
Institute on Religion and Public Policy
Story: Disappointed By French Senate Passage of Restrictive Religion Law
The Vaishnava Communications Institute serves as a resource centre for Vaishnava Hindus in Europe. The institute carries out research on religious liberty issues and actively participates in interfaith dialogue.
CHAKRA 15 December 2001
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