The Church of Scientology is rapidly losing support in Switzerland, and the number of members is declining, religious experts say.

 

"/> The Church of Scientology is rapidly losing support in Switzerland, and the number of members is declining, religious experts say.

 

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RELIGION

Scientology losing Swiss support: experts

The Church of Scientology is rapidly losing support in Switzerland, and the number of members is declining, religious experts say.

 

Published: 4 July 2011 11:34 CEST
Scientology losing Swiss support: experts

 According to a report in the SonntagsZeitung newspaper, theologist Georg Otto Schmid, an expert on sects, said that support for Scientology is “shrinking.”  

“I would imagine that the sect will no longer exist in Switzerland in a few years,” he was quoted as saying by the paper. According to Schmid, the organisation currently has 1,000 active members, a steady decline compared to the 3,000 registered in 1990.

Other religious experts share Schmid’s view, the paper said, adding that activists who try to recruit new members on the streets appear to be poorly trained.

Also, according to Swiss sect expert Dieter Sträuli from Infosekta, Scientology is running out of money, the paper said.

However, Church of Scientology spokeswoman Annette Klug rejected the experts’ analysis, which she dubbed “completely absurd”.

Spokespeople from the Church of Scientology argue that the group founded by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard still has 5,000 “passive and active members in Switzerland.”

RELIGION

Al-Azhar university calls for Sweden boycott over Koran burning

The Sunni Muslim world's most prestigious educational institution, Al-Azhar in Egypt, has called for the boycott of Swedish and Dutch products after far-right activists destroyed Korans in those countries.

Published: 26 January 2023 15:10 CET
Al-Azhar university calls for Sweden boycott over Koran burning

Al-Azhar, in a statement issued on Wednesday, called on “Muslims to boycott Dutch and Swedish products”.

It also urged “an appropriate response from the governments of these two countries” which it charged were “protecting despicable and barbaric crimes in the name of ‘freedom of expression'”.

Swedish-Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan on Saturday set fire to a copy of the Muslim holy book in front of Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm, raising tensions as Sweden courts Ankara over its bid to join Nato.

EXPLAINED:

The following day, Edwin Wagensveld, who heads the Dutch chapter of the German anti-Islam group Pegida, tore pages out of the Koran during a one-man protest outside parliament.

Images on social media also showed him walking on the torn pages of the holy book.

The desecration of the Koran sparked strong protests from Ankara and furious demonstrations in several capitals of the Muslim world including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry “strongly condemned” the Koran burning, expressing “deep concern at the recurrence of such events and the recent Islamophobic escalation in a certain number of European countries”.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned Paludan’s actions as “deeply disrespectful”, while the United States called it “repugnant”.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday said the burning was the work of “a provocateur” who “may have deliberately sought to put distance between two close partners of ours – Turkey and Sweden”.

On Tuesday, Turkey postponed Nato accession talks with Sweden and Finland, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned Stockholm for allowing weekend protests that included the burning of the Koran.

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