Freedom of Religion or Belief · Spiritual Minorities · Global Advocacy
News and analysis on freedom of religion or belief, covering discrimination against spiritual and religious minorities, anti-cult movements, and government inquiries worldwide.
Rosita Šorytė · 24 July 2026
Rosita Šorytė argues the Victorian Parliament's cult inquiry imported anti-cult vocabulary and leaned on uncorroborated apostate testimony, making it one node in a transnational campaign against Shincheonji.
Parliamentary and executive inquiries into religious movements and minority faiths.
Organisations and campaigns that oppose new or minority religious movements.
How news coverage and public discourse shape perceptions of spiritual minorities.
Individual legal cases and prosecutions involving members of minority faiths.
Legal frameworks, rights instruments, and court decisions on freedom of religion or belief.
Articles and interviews preserved from the Centre d'information et de conseil des nouvelles spiritualités (CICNS).
A guide to the roughly fifty-six interviews published on the CICNS YouTube channel between 2006 and 2014: scholars, journalists, practitioners and CICNS's own reports, grouped by voice.
17 July 2026
A guide to the four-part 2013 CICNS interview with sociologist Raphaël Liogier: the struggle inside the French State, why dissent on the cult question costs, why television forbids nuance, and his individuo-globalism thesis.
17 July 2026
Massimo Introvigne reviews Be Scofield’s “The Savior Complex,” which brands Jesus a “cult leader,” and argues that anti-cult models of coercive control and trafficking ultimately target mainline Christianity, not only new religious movements.
16 July 2026
Massimo Introvigne traces three pathways — expanded coercive-control laws, the judicialization of “spiritual abuse,” and reinterpreted trafficking statutes — through which discredited brainwashing theories are re-entering courts and legislation worldwide.
6 July 2026
What a religions scholar, a legal scholar, and a Christian legal advocate say about Victoria's inquiry into "cults and organised fringe groups": its origins, the definitional problem, and the religious-liberty stakes.
4 July 2026
Freedom for Faith’s Mike Southon warns Victoria’s inquiry into “cults and organised fringe groups” cannot define a cult without sweeping in mainstream churches — and urges lawmakers to prosecute illegal acts, not legislate belief.
6 January 2026
Legal scholar Keith Thompson warns that Victoria's proposed inquiry into 'cults and organised fringe groups' threatens religious freedom and disregards legal precedent.
29 November 2025
Part 2 of Bernard Doherty's analysis: "cult" is used so loosely in Victoria's inquiry that most Australian churches and faith communities could be targeted — a threat to religious liberty far beyond the unpopular few.
15 November 2025
Part 1 of Bernard Doherty's analysis: Victoria's 2025 parliamentary inquiry into "cults and organised fringe groups" is far from unprecedented — Australian anti-cult inquiries since the 1963 Anderson Inquiry have nearly all failed.
14 November 2025