ICSA TODAY 32
Correspondents
,
Reports
IDF recorded 18 cases of abuse in the
French Buddhist community (Evenou,
2017).
Meanwhile, after an initial application
dating back to March 20, 2006,
Buddhism is about to become
recognized in Belgium, not as a
religion but as a nondenominational
philosophical organization, according
to the second paragraph of Article
181 of the 1830 Belgian Constitution,
which already recognizes laicity as
a nondenominational philosophy.
Article 181 also recognizes six
religions: Catholicism, Protestantism,
Anglicanism, Orthodoxy, Judaism,
and Islam. Conversations between
the Minister of Justice Koen Geen
and representatives of the Buddhist
Union of Belgium (Union bouddhique
belge, or UBB) suggest that the official
recognition of Buddhism should
occur before the end of the current
legislature, in May 2019. With more
than 100,000 practitioners and 28 UBB
associations, Buddhism makes up an
important community in Belgium, albeit
a nonreligious one, as UBB’s president
Carlo Luycks has clarified (Lesegretain,
Apr. 25, 2017).
Once Buddhism is recognized, Union
delegates such as monks and lamas
will receive state salaries and will serve
in prisons and hospitals, while courses
on Buddhism will be taught in state
schools, among other privileges that
result from official recognition. It should
be noted that, in funding religions and
nondenominational organizations, the
state also aims to control their activities
and to prevent less transparent sources
of funding.
Cults in France
Following the 1995 collective murder-
suicide of the Order of the Solar
Temple, the French government began
to crack down on cults and, in June
2001, it promulgated the controversial
About-Picard Law—updated January
2017—which allows for the ban of
religious groups that “infringe upon
human rights and fundamental
freedoms” (Legifrance, 2017). In the
past few years, however, it seems
that the government has let down its
guard: “French sects have continued
to expand, with more than 600 groups
active today compared with just 200 in
the mid-1990s,” and “According to the
latest report from the government’s
cult-tracking agency, sectarian activity
jumped from 954 incidents in the first
half of 2015 to 1,266 in the first half of
2016” (Nugent, 2017). Didier Pachoud,
president of GEMPPI (the Group for
the Study of Thought Movements and
Protection of the Individual), observes
that smaller groups, such as holistic-
healing or meditation groups, now tend
to replace large groups and thus more
easily elude identification and tracking
(Nugent, 2017). Laure Telo, president
of the CCMM (Center against Mental
Manipulations), concurs, expressing
her preoccupation with the rapid
development of alternative medical
treatments. On October 14, during its
annual convention, the CCMM noted
that patients increasingly turn to
alternative medical treatments, which
may be “entryways to [cultic] abuses”
or “charlatanism” (CCMM, 2017). The
CCMM also estimates that 40 percent of
the French population has recourse to
alternative medicine, among whom a
great number are cancer patients.
The increase of smaller cultic groups
might explain why MIVILUDES (the
Interministerial Mission to Monitor and
Combat Cultic Abuses) has remained
largely silent since its last report in
2015, although between 2,500 and
3,000 cases per year were brought to
the group’s attention (Mascret, 2017).
Regarding major cults, on November
8, 2017, the Council of State approved
the refusal by the National School of
Magistrates to communicate to the
Church of Scientology Celebrity Center
(ASES-CC) the names of participants
registered in its training sessions on
cultic abuses. The Council explained
that communicating these names to the
ASES-CC could jeopardize both public
security and the security of individuals.
The ASES-CC wanted to use documents
with these names to call into question
the impartiality of magistrates who
had participated in these training
sessions and who had ruled on matters
pertaining to the church (Legalis, 2017).
Jehovah’s Witnesses
April 19, 2017, marked the release
in France of a Franco-Italian feature
film that recounts the evolution of a
Jehovah’s Witness after she discovers
love for a man outside her community.
Correspondents
,
Reports
IDF recorded 18 cases of abuse in the
French Buddhist community (Evenou,
2017).
Meanwhile, after an initial application
dating back to March 20, 2006,
Buddhism is about to become
recognized in Belgium, not as a
religion but as a nondenominational
philosophical organization, according
to the second paragraph of Article
181 of the 1830 Belgian Constitution,
which already recognizes laicity as
a nondenominational philosophy.
Article 181 also recognizes six
religions: Catholicism, Protestantism,
Anglicanism, Orthodoxy, Judaism,
and Islam. Conversations between
the Minister of Justice Koen Geen
and representatives of the Buddhist
Union of Belgium (Union bouddhique
belge, or UBB) suggest that the official
recognition of Buddhism should
occur before the end of the current
legislature, in May 2019. With more
than 100,000 practitioners and 28 UBB
associations, Buddhism makes up an
important community in Belgium, albeit
a nonreligious one, as UBB’s president
Carlo Luycks has clarified (Lesegretain,
Apr. 25, 2017).
Once Buddhism is recognized, Union
delegates such as monks and lamas
will receive state salaries and will serve
in prisons and hospitals, while courses
on Buddhism will be taught in state
schools, among other privileges that
result from official recognition. It should
be noted that, in funding religions and
nondenominational organizations, the
state also aims to control their activities
and to prevent less transparent sources
of funding.
Cults in France
Following the 1995 collective murder-
suicide of the Order of the Solar
Temple, the French government began
to crack down on cults and, in June
2001, it promulgated the controversial
About-Picard Law—updated January
2017—which allows for the ban of
religious groups that “infringe upon
human rights and fundamental
freedoms” (Legifrance, 2017). In the
past few years, however, it seems
that the government has let down its
guard: “French sects have continued
to expand, with more than 600 groups
active today compared with just 200 in
the mid-1990s,” and “According to the
latest report from the government’s
cult-tracking agency, sectarian activity
jumped from 954 incidents in the first
half of 2015 to 1,266 in the first half of
2016” (Nugent, 2017). Didier Pachoud,
president of GEMPPI (the Group for
the Study of Thought Movements and
Protection of the Individual), observes
that smaller groups, such as holistic-
healing or meditation groups, now tend
to replace large groups and thus more
easily elude identification and tracking
(Nugent, 2017). Laure Telo, president
of the CCMM (Center against Mental
Manipulations), concurs, expressing
her preoccupation with the rapid
development of alternative medical
treatments. On October 14, during its
annual convention, the CCMM noted
that patients increasingly turn to
alternative medical treatments, which
may be “entryways to [cultic] abuses”
or “charlatanism” (CCMM, 2017). The
CCMM also estimates that 40 percent of
the French population has recourse to
alternative medicine, among whom a
great number are cancer patients.
The increase of smaller cultic groups
might explain why MIVILUDES (the
Interministerial Mission to Monitor and
Combat Cultic Abuses) has remained
largely silent since its last report in
2015, although between 2,500 and
3,000 cases per year were brought to
the group’s attention (Mascret, 2017).
Regarding major cults, on November
8, 2017, the Council of State approved
the refusal by the National School of
Magistrates to communicate to the
Church of Scientology Celebrity Center
(ASES-CC) the names of participants
registered in its training sessions on
cultic abuses. The Council explained
that communicating these names to the
ASES-CC could jeopardize both public
security and the security of individuals.
The ASES-CC wanted to use documents
with these names to call into question
the impartiality of magistrates who
had participated in these training
sessions and who had ruled on matters
pertaining to the church (Legalis, 2017).
Jehovah’s Witnesses
April 19, 2017, marked the release
in France of a Franco-Italian feature
film that recounts the evolution of a
Jehovah’s Witness after she discovers
love for a man outside her community.
