Scientology Amsterdam is seen by the cult’s head office in Los Angeles as ‘a small and failing org,’ says Jenna Miscavige, niece of Scientology’s current cult leader, David Miscavige.
The Amsterdam base has faced rent arrears several times.
The Church of Scientology in Amsterdam says it will take steps against a Dutch tax authorities decision that closed a loophole which allowed members to give tax-deductible donations to the organization.
Last Monday the Tax and Customs Administration announced that Nabesa, one of the church’s front groups, has lost its status as a public benefit organization.
Members of the Netherlands’ House of Representatives have asked questions of State Secretary for Finance, Frans Weekers, regarding tax deductions on financial donations given to the Church of Scientology via front groups.
Scientology is not considered a charitable organization in the Netherlands, and therefore encourages members to donate to the church via an ancillary foundation that does have charitable status.
The controversial Church of Scientology is in the process of acquiring an office complex in a suburb of Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The enormous complex is located in the New West suburb — well away from the city’s center, where the problem-plagued cult has had a presence for decades.
Prominent members of the Church of Scientology of Amsterdam have dived into a niche in the market: launching economic doomsday scenarios in conjunction with selling gold.
Two senior Scientology officials, Manuel Nugteren en Joop van der Linde, operate within an opaque organization that — via the internet — attempts to interest individuals in investing in gold. These potential investors are told that economic collapse is imminent, and that gold is the only safe investment.
The acting mayor of Amsterdam, Lodewijk Asscher, wants to look into the possibility of using so-called ‘decoy Jews’ to combat anti-Semitic violence.
The approach is in line with Asscher’s intention to look for unorthodox measures in the city’s fight against intolerance and violence toward gays and Jews, his spokesman said Monday.
Real Estate corporation Libra International has filed interim injunction procedures against the Church of Scientology in Amsterdam.
The organization is facing $103.000 in rent arrears.
“Sometimes it takes a while but until now they have always eventually paid up. The interim injunction is simply a ‘stick behind the door’,” Libra’s attorney says — referring to a Dutch idiom that suggests one has the means to compel someone into compliance.
If wearing a burqa prevents a woman from getting a job she should also not expect to receive benefits.
So says Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen in an interview with Dutch-language newspaper Trouw.
He is not calling for a ban on the burqa.
Amsterdam played host Sunday to a Christmas celebration for its gay community that featured a Nativity tableau with a man in drag playing the part of Mary.
Frank van Dalen, chairman of the advocacy group Pro Gay that organized the event, known as Pink Christmas, said that it sought to raise Amsterdam’s profile as a capital for gays.
In news forums, countless homosexuals condemned the display.
There has been wrangling over the mosque for years. This began shortly after a symbolic first brick was laid by the then Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner. He called the project a “symbol of integration” – but this statement rapidly turned out to be untenable.
The mosque is intended to be one of the biggest in Europe. The style is Ottoman, with high minarets and a large central dome. Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen has repeatedly said he hopes the mosque can eventually be built after all.