Scientology Trial in France: Can a Religion Be Banned?

The Church of Scientology's French branch head Alain Rosenberg pushes journalists back as he leaves a Paris court, having been charged with organized fraud

May 28, 2009. Bruce Crumley, for TIME (UK). As a fiercely secular nation, France has always had an awkward relationship with religious groups. Officials often find themselves struggling to strike the delicate balance between maintaining church-state separation and honoring the right of citizens to express their faith. But in the current case against the U.S.-based Church of Scientology, authorities have abandoned their usual attempts at fine-tuning religion's standing in French society — instead, they want to ban Scientology from France altogether.