Articles

by Alessandro Amicarelli — Luigi Corvaglia, the self-styled anti-cult crusader and FECRIS board member, has once again graced the digital pages of “AgoraVox”—that Italian bastion of citizen journalism where anyone with a keyboard and a grievance can play pundit. But this time, his article didn’t just linger in the depths of AgoraVox’s volunteer-driven archives. It was swiftly picked up and republished by the China Anti-Xie-Jiao Association ...

As the fratricidal war in Ukraine continues, so does the war between Russia and Jehovah's Witnesses. The two events are not comparable, on the one hand you die, on the other you go to jail. But in the long run, the latter proves more dangerous and harmful, because what is dying is freedom of belief, the freedom to be what one wants to be, and this would be the end of all individuality and all freedom.

In Italy, but unfortunately not only there, there is an ongoing emergency: a virus that was thought to have been permanently eradicated back in the early 1980s has made a comeback. It is again circulating and being transmitted by communicating, exchanging ideas, changing one's point of view and embracing new life experiences. It is the “virus of mental manipulation”. It seems that the only vaccine that can stop this alarming phenomenon is a law to control and limit the freedom to change one's opinion about someone or something.

• A High Court in Northern Nigeria has overturned the wrongful conviction of a Christian man who helped a persecuted convert escape violence in the country.
• ADF International and allied lawyers provided legal support to David’s case and secured justice after a year-and-a-half of legal struggle.

In the complete indifference of the mainstream media, 28 July 2025 marked the 11^th anniversary of the massacre of the Uyghurs in Yarkand by the Chinese communist regime. The Uyghurs are a Muslim minority of Turkic-speaking ethnicity living in the autonomous region of Xinjiang in northwest China. Although they count more than 11 million individuals, in China it is a small religious minority ...

FOB has addressed the topic of apostates several times, including the study "Apostates and New Religious Movements" by Bryan Ronald Wilson, Emeritus Fellow, University of Oxford, and the article "The Defector's Syndrome" by attorney Fabrizio d'Agostini, founding member of FOB. The following article, by Willy Fautré, director of Human Rights Without Frontiers, exemplifies a typical modus operandi in the anti-cult world ...

by Alessandro Amicarelli — In its ruling of 16 June 2025 in civil case no. 7879/2023, Section II of the Florence Tribunal ruled against the Italian Association of Victims of Cults (AIVS) for actions carried out online targeting the Soka Gakkai Buddhist Institute, based in Florence.  

What led to this ruling?

The inhumane practice of organ harvesting, to which Falun Gong members imprisoned in China are subjected, was the subject of the documentary film “Free China: The Courage to Believe,” which helped break down the wall of silence and ignorance on the subject. But Beijing government's constant efforts to export its negative propaganda against Falun Gong continue to cause damage in Russia —and elsewhere— as the following article tells us.

2025 is proving to be an annus horribilis for MIVILUDES, the French anti-cult state organization (Mission interministérielle de vigilance et de lutte contre les dérives sectaires – Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combating Cultic Deviances). On July 11, in fact, the Administrative Court of Paris issued the 5^th sentence against MIVILUDES for refusing to delete from its 2021 report some defamatory phrases to the detriment of the Christian congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. The story goes hand in hand with the judgment of ...

Italy has recently seen the proposal of a law intended to punish mental manipulation, particularly ascribed to so-called “cults,” with prison sentences ranging from three to eight years. In an interview published by Bitter Winter, attorney Alessandro Amicarelli, chairman of Freedom of Belief (FOB), speaks with sociologist Massimo Introvigne, director of CESNUR, who raises serious concerns about the effectiveness and legitimacy of the proposed law.

By Willy Fautré, director of Human Rights Without Frontiers — On 30 June, Donatien Le Vaillant, the head of the MIVILUDES (Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and Combating Cultic Abuses) since 31 January 2023 "left" his duties, according to an official statement. This Deputy Inspector General of Justice officially "wanted" to return to his senior position at the General Inspectorate of Administration. However, according to the French weekly Marianne, his departure was ...

By Victoria Arnold — A Moscow court jailed Buddhist leader Ilya Vasilyev on 25 June for eight years for allegedly disseminating "knowingly false information" about Russia's Armed Forces, the longest known prison term for opposing Russia's war against Ukraine on religious grounds. "We called for the voice of reason, but it seems the judge heard only the voice of the prosecutor's office," his lawyer Gevorg Aleksanyan said. A court spokesperson refused comment on the verdict or why the Judge refuses a prison visit from a Buddhist priest.

We are pleased to announce the release of a compelling new work by Prof. David W. Kim, respected scholar and member of the Scientific Committee of the European Federation for Freedom of Belief (FOB). In Silk Road Footprints: Transnational Transmission of Sacred Thoughts and Historical Legacy, Prof. Kim re-examines the Silk Road not merely as a highway of goods and empires, but as a fertile conduit of sacred ideas, religious traditions, and evolving identities.

From June 26 to 28, 2025, scholars from across Europe and beyond gathered at Vilnius University’s Old Town Campus for the 10^th Biennial Conference of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE). Marking the society’s 20^th anniversary, this milestone event explored the theme “Esotericism and Rationality”, challenging long-held assumptions about the boundaries between mystical thought and intellectual rigor.


FOB had already dealt with Guru Jára's affair with a series of four articles written four-handedly by Alessandro Amicarelli, FOB president, and Massimo Introvigne, editor of Bitter Winter. Pavel Hlavinka, associate professor at Palacký University, also wrote about Guru Jára declaring himself to be a disciple of his. This did not pass unnoticed by a zealous intolerant journalist (...)

This complaint adds to the collection of criticisms of MIVILUDES by internationally renowned scholars and complaints filed by religious denominations considered by MIVILUDES to be “responsible for sectarian drifts.” Taking a stand against some of the allegations in MIVILUDES' 2024 annual report is the Impact Centre Chrétien, a French Evangelical Protestant Church.

Since January 2024, the Union Nationale des Associations de Défense des Familles et de l'Individu (UNADFI) has been receiving a grant of 150,000 euros, courtesy of MIVILUDES. Officially, this public boon is supposed to fund a project to “digitize and share documentation” of the association, which is presented as a “heritage”. But upon closer inspection, the operation looks more like budget manipulation, technocratic window dressing, and accounting that lacks transparency.

The European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO) published an annual report which calls to release all prisoners of conscience in Ukraine, including those detained on Russia-occupied territories and those who suffered abuses because of harsh military mobilization for Ukrainian defensive war against Russian aggression. The report outlines 15 names of conscientious objectors that must be immediately released by Ukraine, including those imprisoned after conviction and held in pre-trial detention under Articles 336 (draft evasion) and 402 (disobedience) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, and those detained in military units ...

On June 4, 2025, multiple cities across the UK, including London, Kingston, Manchester, and Birmingham, held events to mark the 36^th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. In London, commemorative activities took place both during the day and in the evening, including seminars and street memorials, drawing participants from all walks of life who are concerned with Chinese democracy and human rights.

Thirteen Christians in Jiangmen and Foshan, Guangdong Province, were sentenced by CCP’s people’s courts to prison terms ranging from two years and three months to four years and six months, solely for engaging in normal religious activities such as hosting church fellows for gatherings, storing books related to their faith, and preaching the gospel.