A new report reveals how Beijing’s political machinery blends with criminal networks across the region.
Massimo Introvigne
How Media Generate Violence, From Rwanda to Anti-Cult Campaigns. 2. Hate Speech Against “Cults”
Nothing in today’s anti-cult agitation can be compared to the scale of the Rwandan genocide. Yet, the logic is the same: dehumanization, fear, and hate speech.
Student Forced Labor: How China Exploits Its Children
A new report exposes how vocational programs have turned minors into expendable labor under the guise of “training,” revealing a system where exploitation thrives behind censorship.
How Media Generate Violence, From Rwanda to Anti-Cult Campaigns. 1. Genocidal Media in Rwanda
The 1994 tragedy had multiple causes, but hate speech spread by the media was crucial. The lesson should be remembered when confronting hate speech today.
Brainwashing Returns Through Trafficking Laws: A New Threat to Religious Freedom
How the revival of discredited psychological‑coercion theories inside trafficking frameworks endangers every religious and spiritual community: a call to action.
The Repression of the New Testament Church and the Tai Ji Men Case in Taiwan: Parallels and Differences
Two very different spiritual movements were targeted, at different times, by similar forms of repression.
Lifechanyuan: Facing a New Wave of Repression in China
Fresh detentions and sentences show that China’s campaign against this spiritual movement continues
日本の最高裁、統一教会の解散を確定
迅速かつ簡潔な判断によって訴訟は終結したが、その判決は司法の中立性、適正手続き、そして日本における信教の自由の将来について深刻な疑問を残した。
A 95-Year-Old Religious Leader in Custody: South Korea Crosses a Line
An elderly man who devoted his life to faith is now treated as a public menace.
Japan’s Supreme Court Confirms the Dissolution of the Unification Church
A rapid and thinly reasoned verdict closes the case but leaves profound concerns about neutrality, due process, and the future of religious freedom in Japan.
Massimo Introvigne
Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press' Nova Religio. From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the "Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions" of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.