Seulement 200 à 300 scientologues sont actifs en Belgique (rtbf.be - 26.01.2011)

Les scientologues possèdent donc aujourd'hui un luxueux siège social Rue de la loi, un lieu de culte à Malines, et ce nouveau centre dit "européen" près de la porte de Hal: 7400 mètres carrés de marbre et de luxe. Nous avons assisté à l'office de dimanche mais vous n'entendrez  ni chants ni commentaires... la présence du micro a été refusée.

Mais la séance est publique, explique-t-on: l'entrée est libre.... Néanmoins dès le seuil chacun note ses coordonnées. Et dans la chapelle il n'y a visiblement que des scientologues. 80 adultes et adolescents, dans un cocon de tapis plain, de compositions florales. Sur les murs, des textes du fondateur du mouvement et véritable empire financier... Ron Hubbard.

Une femme monte à la tribune, la "chapelain", et lit le Crédo scientologue écrit par... Ron Hubbard. Ensuite un texte par Ron hubbard. Puis le Sermon de l'auteur... Ron Hubbard.

Les textes ont moins de 60 ans, mais ils empruntent le style plein d'images et de répétitions de la bible et son vocabulaire: le ciel les enfers, le salut. La scientologie se veut une "église", elle en emprunte le langage.

Sauf qu'ici il n'est pas question de dieu... les lectures disent: c'est la scientologie qui vous sauvera. Et aussi: seul l'esprit peut guérir le corps. Ou encore: les maladies mentales ne devraient être guéries que dans le domaine religieux.

En fin de cérémonie: le moment phare, l'audition collective, la chapelain interroge l'assemblée qui lui répond en choeur. Toujours les mêmes questions simples à rythme soutenu, pendant 20 minutes : Avez-vous une main droite? oui. Est-ce que vous m'entendez? oui. Est-ce que vous m'entendez? Oui. Avez-vous une main droite? oui. A la fin de cette scansion vertigineuse, plus possible d'avoir l'esprit qui vagabonde. C'est fait exprès, me dit ma voisine, pour se sentir ici et maintenant, et ouvrir son esprit. Curieuse cérémonie où pour ouvrir son esprit on ne lit qu'un seul et unique auteur.

Quel est le rôle de ce centre européen de la scientologie ?

Cela fait un an exactement que la scientologie a inauguré son centre européen, à Bruxelles. La scientologie dont des membres font l'objet de deux instructions judiciaires pour dérives sectaires: des soupçons d'extorsion, d'exercice illégal de la médecine, d'infraction à la loi sur la vie privée. Mais ces poursuites n'empêchent donc pas le mouvement d'étendre sa présence en Belgique avec ce troisième bâtiment belge... et cette extension se ressent.

Des tracts qui oublient souvent de mentionner le mot scientologie, de la même façon les adeptes mènent des actions sociales sans préciser qu'ils sont scientologues..."Tous les scientologues sont actifs, d'ailleurs ils passent tous 5 à 10 heures de leur temps chaque semaine et ce sont donc ces scientologues qui tiennent des stand d'information toutes les semaines, qui tiennent des stand à la déclaration universelle des droits de l'homme, qui font du rattrapage scolaire après l'école, en utilisant une technologie de l'étude pour aider les enfants à pouvoir étudier plus facilement".

Des actions sociales interpellantes quand on lit le rapport de la commission parlementaire sur les sectes: la vraie finalité d'une campagne anti-drogue de la scientologie, rapportent les parlementaires, serait de recruter de nouveaux membres, membres parfois ruinés par leur adhésion au mouvement.

Aujourd'hui combien y a-t-il d'adeptes actifs ?

Combien la scientologie a-t-elle d'adeptes belges ? Difficile à dire. Deux ou trois cents. Mais ce sont eux en tout cas qui ont financé ce nouveau centre.... et d'autres......" Vous avez Madrid, vous avez Berlin, vous avez Rome, Bruxelles récem- ment et d'autres à venir ...". Autant de nouveaux palaces dans des capitales européennes.

Quand aux deux instructions judiciaires à l'encontre de "l'église de scientologie de Belgique", elles devraient s'achever dans les semaines à venir. Prochaine étape: la chambre du conseil.

However, Scientology as usual didn't follow the normal legal steps. First, they sent in a first wave of goons, including dogs, to attempt to intimidate the squatters. The squatters called the police, who chased off the Scientologists. And at exactly the same time, instead of going to the Justice of the Peace, they used a fast-track procedure, taking their case directly to the Court of First Instance, the next higher step on the civil courts ladder, to get an immediate judgement. This is an exceptional procedure, meant for cases that require urgent attention. In a case like this, for instance, there might be squatters in a building you own that are systematically looting and tearing apart the place, and that have to be removed immediately. The result was: they got slapped on the wrist by the judge for abuse of the legal process.

The judge pointed out that there couldn't possibly be any urgency to their request to have the squatters evicted so renovation work could start, since they hadn't even applied for a building permit yet, and consequently couldn't carry out any significant work. So he refused to deal with the matter, and referred the matter back to where they should have gone in the first place: the Justice of the Peace. In doing so, he also implicitly gave the squatters permission to stay in the building until the ruling of the Justice of the Peace.

Once again, Scientology tried intimidation tactics by sending in their uniformed "volunteers" before that ruling. The police once again had to intervene, once again being called in by the squatters, not Scientology. A compromise of sorts was reached, with the squatters allowed to stay in two of the four buildings that make up the complex, and the Scientology "volunteers" allowed to do non-substantial work, not requiring a building permit, in the other two, that were unoccupied anyway, until the Justice of the Peace came up with a decision. That finally happened on Nov. 14.

Amusingly, that same google shows that someone with the same name put up a Paris appartment for sale at the beginning of October, just when he popped up in Belgium. Can there really be two different Alain Tizioli's living in central Paris and moving out in early October ? Poor sod, he has to sell his home to do his masters' bidding.

As to the question about building permits, a topic I'd been planning on explaining for weeks now: in Belgium, almost any kind of work done in a building that goes beyond a new paintjob or putting up some shelves requires a building permit. I don't know what the exact legal definitions are, but basically, as soon as it involves bricks and mortar, you need a permit from the municipal authorities. In most cases, this is a rubber-stamp affair, and it's also probably one of the most widely flouted legal rules around. But for significant renovation work in an inner-city building you definitely need one (in rural areas, where there's nobody around to spot you're carrying out work without a permit, you can get away with a lot). If the municipal authorities have decided that they don't like you, as the mayor of Brussels definitely and publicly has in this case, they can turn this into a really painful and expensive process. Simply dragging out the administrative delays to the maximum extent possible can add months or even years to the process.

There is a huge body of legislation and administrative rules that apply, and if the municipal authorities start dragging out each and every one of them, and insist that they're all followed to the letter, they can make life extremely difficult for someone who wants to undertake a major renovation project like this. Never underestimate what can be achieved through Belgian bureaucratic obstinacy, judiciously applied. Even if building permits finally have to be granted, one can then send in building inspectors to make sure that every single stage of the process is carried out exactly as stated in the permit, and work stopped and fines levied if it isn't. If mayor Thielemans really wants to play hardball, he can make life very, very difficult, and above all very expensive and time-consuming, for Scientology.

Without wanting to be a mind-reader : I think such delaying tactics are exactly what he has in mind. Scientology's upcoming trial is due any day now (although with the glacial pace of the Belgian judicial system, especially in Brussels where they have a chronic shortage of staff, one never can tell). If he can delay everything until after that trial, things might be very different. If Scientology is indeed convicted as a criminal organisation, that building might well be impounded, or at least put in some kind of legal limbo until all possible appeals have been exhausted. And I imagine that any mayor would be well within his rights to suspend all permits and stop all work on a building that is owned by a criminal organisation, and is being renovated to suit their criminal purposes.

While I'm on the subject of the mayor: another subject that needs some clarification might be his status as "mayor of Brussels". For political and historical reasons that are much to complicated to explain, what most everyone would logically think of as the city of Brussels is still divided up into 19 separate municipalities, each obviously with their own mayor (in the rest of Belgium, such small municipalities were all put together in more logical larger units in the 1970's, but not in Brussels). So the "Brussels" Thielemans is mayor of is a rather odd beast : it's basically still just the old medieval city within its 16th century walls, with a few oddly shaped appendages outside of that tacked on in the 19th century (for instance, it was thought fitting for the King to reside in the nominal capital, even though he lived outside the city.

So the municipality of Laken, which is where he actually lived, was annexed to Brussels. There are a couple of other oddities like that.) But basically, he's the mayor of a quite small inner-city area, large parts of it taken up by offices and shops, and consequently with a quite small population. The city walls were torn down in the 19th century, and replaced by boulevards. The Scientology building is on one of those. If you simply leave their building and cross the street, you're no longer in the municipality of Brussels, you're in St. Gillis. If you turn left when leaving the building and walk for a couple of minutes, you're in Elsene. Etcetera. We're talking extremely local politics here. The linear distance between the office of the Mayor in the town hall and the Scientology building is less then a mile.

I'm sure there's other stuff that I wanted to comment on or explain, but I think I've typed enough for now.