{"id":1605,"date":"2009-10-27T08:02:42","date_gmt":"2009-10-27T13:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/?p=1605"},"modified":"2009-10-27T08:02:42","modified_gmt":"2009-10-27T13:02:42","slug":"scientology-convicted-of-fraud-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/27\/scientology-convicted-of-fraud-in-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientology Convicted of Fraud in France"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Paris court has convicted the “Church” of Scientology of fraud<\/a> and has fined it over half a million Euros, though the court didn’t go so far as to shut it down and ban it from operating in France. The case has been under investigation for more than a decade, it seems.<\/p>\n

Unlike the United States, France doesn’t recognize Scientology as a religion, but classifies it as a “sect.” Some other European countries classify it as a cult, which is probably more appropriate. Interestingly, according to this MSNBC article<\/a>…<\/p>\n

Belgium, Germany and other European countries have been criticized by the U.S. State Department for labeling Scientology as a cult or sect and enacting laws to restrict its operations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Score negative one for the U.S. State Department.<\/p>\n

Though the Paris court couldn’t ban the Church of Scientology from practicing in the country due to a legal amendment that had been enacted shortly before the trial began, there is still hope for a ban because the amendment in question has been changed. This trial is complete, but any further charges brought against Scientology could possibly result in a ban.<\/p>\n

Of course, Eric Roux, the Scientology legal representative (from the French Celebrity Center), says the “church” will appeal the decision and stated, “Religious freedom is in danger in this country.” However, I don’t think Mr. Roux understands one of the basic tenants of religious freedom.<\/p>\n

You have to be a religion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Paris court has convicted the “Church” of Scientology of fraud and has fined it over half a million Euros, though the court didn’t go so far as to shut it down and ban it from operating in France. The case has been under investigation for more than a decade, it seems. Unlike the United … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Scientology Convicted of Fraud in France”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[161,234,301,348,349,611,682,727],"class_list":["post-1605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scientology","tag-celebrity-center","tag-cult","tag-eric-roux","tag-france","tag-fraud","tag-paris","tag-religion","tag-scientology","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}