BERLIN (AP)  Germany's interior minister called the Church of Scientology "an unconstitutional organization" and said the nation's domestic intelligence agency would move to ban the group, a report said Sunday. Federal Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble's remarks came shortly after interior ministers from Germany's 16 states agreed unanimously Friday to move toward banning Scientology, which has been under observation for a decade on allegations that it "threatens the peaceful democratic order" of the country. "Scientology is an unconstitutional organization," Schaeuble was quoted as saying by the Bild am Sonntag weekly, which featured a picture of prominent Scientology member Tom Cruise on the front page with a headline asking: "How dangerous is the Cruise cult?" Schaeuble was quoted as saying the organization restricts "essential basic and human rights like the dignity of man or the right to equal treatment." Schaeuble said Scientology rejects Germany's democratic system and that therefore, "the federal and state intelligence agencies will collect their current findings to check further steps." Sabine Weber, president of the Church of Scientology in Berlin, called Schaeuble's remarks "unrealistic" and "absurd." She said the interior minister had based his evaluation of the organization "on a few sentences out of 500,000 pages of Scientological literature." She did not give any specific examples. "I can also find hundreds of quotes in the Bible that are totalitarian but that doesn't mean I will demand the ban of Christianity," she said. "From my point of view, it is not Scientology which violates the constitution but the interior ministers themselves because by trying to ban our organization, they are violating our constitutional rights," Weber said. The Scientologists have long battled to end the surveillance, saying it is an abuse of their right to freedom of religion. They point to several lower court rulings in favor of their right to practice in Germany as a religious organization. The U.S. State Department regularly criticizes Germany in its annual Human Rights Report for the practice. The state interior ministers gave no specific examples for their decision Friday, but the most recent annual report on extremism compiled by their agencies criticized the Church of Scientology of disregarding human rights. "From a number of sources, some of them not available to the public, it has been determined that (the organization) seeks to limit or rescind basic and human rights, such as the right to develop one's personality and the right to be treated equally," the report said. The German magazine Spiegel reported Saturday that a Scientology ban in Germany seemed unlikely, citing unnamed domestic intelligence sources who said they see little prospect to gather enough evidence to push through a ban. "I doubt that one will find enough proof to be able to ban Scientology," Sebastian Edathy, head of the interior committee of the German parliament, told daily Tagesspiegel on Saturday. Earlier this year, the German government initially refused to allow producers of a Nazi-era movie starring Cruise to film in Berlin. It later allowed the production to go ahead. The Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology was founded in 1954 by the late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. It first set up in Germany in 1970, and officials estimate it has some 6,000 members in the country. Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Enlarge By Miguel Villagran, AP The Church of Scientology's German branch in January moved into its current headquarters, a six-floor building on a busy street in the central Charlottenburg district of west Berlin. The organization said it would it will use the renovated, 43,000 square-foot space for study, meetings and to carry out programs on human rights and against youth violence and drug abuse. Conversation guidelines: USA TODAY welcomes your thoughts, stories and information related to this article. Please stay on topic and be respectful of others. Keep the conversation appropriate for interested readers across the map.