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by darklajid 5116 days ago
The point is still moot if we're talking about Austria (just like the reference of Germany was useless so is the US one).

To add some real data: Over there it seems that this organization is tax-exempt, but not recognized as a church or religion. [1, found as reference on Wikipedia]:

  Sensitivity to and fears of Scientology in the country remains an issue. 
  The Church of Scientology reported problems obtaining credit cards, 
  and individual Scientologists experienced discrimination in hiring.
  However, Scientology leaders also noted that the Vienna Provincial 
  Tax Authority granted them tax-exempt, non-profit status. 
Well.. Now this is a nice US centric view here that probably _is_ based on this stuff being a religion in the US after all. Scientology members being discriminated, a paragraph between a reports about Muslims and Jews. Hilarious.

1: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Austria http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/27825.htm