One day after BAYS scored another court victory, “The New York Times” republished the old falsehoods about the “sex cult.” Why?
Massimo Introvigne
Carpaccio’s “Portrait of a Knight”: The Last Hurrah of Chivalric Spirituality
The works of PierLuigi Zoccatelli, who left us last month, may serve as a guide to the greatest painting of the Venetian artist.
Now, It’s Uganda: Churches Fight New Restrictive Draft Religious Policy
Deaths by fasting in Kenya are used to put all religions under state control. Churches vow to “stand firm to the last drop of our blood until the policy is dropped.”
Hate Crimes Epidemic Against the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Japan: Who Is Responsible?
Documents prove that private anti-cult organizations had a key role in the creation of government documents that caused a surge of hate speech and violence.
China Caught Red-Handed in Promoting Fake Anti-India Sikh Protests in the West
Meta, the company operating Facebook and Instagram, dismantled a Chinese network of false accounts called “Operation K.”
Russia: Towards a Liquidation of the Greek Catholic Church?
A priest in Omsk was detained for “rehabilitation of Nazism.” The FSB warned that “the fate of the Greek Catholic Church in Russia” is at stake.
Palermo: The Tai Ji Men Case Discussed at the European Academy of Religion
The Taiwanese and international contexts of the case were presented in one of the best attended sessions of the international conference.
Another School for Girls Burned by Arsonists in Pakistan
The police tries to attribute the incident to a business dispute, but there is a consistent pattern of attacks by ultra-fundamentalists hostile to the education of women.
Buffalo Bill as a False Italian—but a Real Freemason
Mussolini, who outlawed Freemasonry, falsely claimed the hero of the West was born in Romagna. He didn’t know he was a lifelong Freemason.
Why Spiritual Organizations Should Be Tax-Exempt—Including Tai Ji Men
It is a matter of Taiwanese law. But general principles of freedom of religion or belief, and common sense, also tell us that religious and spiritual paths should not be taxed.
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.