During the year, however, the law was modified to exempt service-providers from legal responsibility for material beyond their control. The country s internal security agency has registered a strong rise in racist and far-right radical tendencies. In October, the leader of another far-right party was sentenced to six months in jail for glorifying violence through CDs in which the party described the brutal murder of its political opponents. In June, the government drew criticism from human rights groups for tightening the country s liberal asylum law. In a move that critics decried as electioneering, all of the major political parties collaborated in the passage of a provision that dramatically cut government benefits to asylum seekers.
Freedom of religion is established under the Basic Law.
State governments subsidize church-affiliated schools and provide religious instruction in schools and universities for those of the Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Jewish faiths. Scientologists, who claim 30,000 adherents in Germany, have been at the center of a heated debate over the group s legal status. Officials have stated that the group financially exploits its followers and exerts extreme psychological pressure on those who attempt to leave the group. They have also stated that Germany s unique history necessitates their close scrutiny of extremist groups that could, like the Nazi Party, begin as a small organization and then undergo explosive growth. Labor, business, and farming groups are free, highly organized, and influential.