Sensationalizing new religious movements is a usual practice. One popular Internet practice is to use “lists” to attract users. Lists of “cultic” or objectionable features of certain movements are used to perpetuate stereotypes, badmouth religious minorities, and spread fake news.

Fortify Rights and Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “They Tried to Kill Us All”: Atrocity Crimes Against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, Myanmar, Washington DC: Fortify Rights and Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2017. Available for free download. Hundreds of thousands […]

Eilappell an Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel Fr. Zhao, Mitglied der Kirche des Allmächtigen Gottes, würde verhaftet werden und “verschwinden” wenn sie zurück nach China deportiert wird Sehr geehrte Frau Bundeskanzlerin Merkel, Wir sind NGOs, die sich auf dem Gebiet der Religionsfreiheit engagieren und schreiben Ihnen, wegen der prekären Lage der chinesischen Flüchtlingsfrau Zhao, die zur Zeit […]

In a decision awaited with interest in political and diplomatic circles, the Court of Zharkent, Kazakhstan, has ruled that a Chinese Muslim woman, who entered the country illegally, should not be deported to China, where she would face imprisonment and torture. Bitter Winter reported on July 18 about the case of Sayragul Sauytbay, a Muslim […]

Germany plans to deport back to China a member of The Church of Almighty God detained in Ingelheim. Nine NGOs tell Chancellor Merkel that in China she will be arrested and may be tortured. Nine NGOs active in the field of religious liberty wrote on August 1 to German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the urgent […]

  Date: July 5, 2018 Source: Different NGOs On July 4, Bitter Winter reported that Sister Zou Demei, the leader of the Christian new religious movement The Church of Almighty God in four Chinese provinces, is detained in Detroit, Michigan, and is under immediate threat of being deported back to China. She is wanted there […]

  Source: Direct reports from NGOs Date: June 21, 2018   On June 20, 2018, during the yearly conference of CESNUR, the Center for Studies on New Religions, which is taking place in Nantou, Taiwan, Professor Massimo Introvigne, editor-in-chief of Bitter Winter reviewed the scholarly literature on fake news, and analyzed the campaign of fake […]

  CAP Liberté de Conscience : Coordination des Associations et des Particuliers pour la Liberté de Conscience CESNUR : Center for Studies on New Religions EIFRF : European Interreligious Forum for Religious Freedom FOREF : Forum for Religious Freedom Europe HRWF : Human Rights Without Frontiers ORLIR : International Observatory of  Religious Liberty of  Refugees SOTERIA INT’L   Thank you Mr […]

  Source: United Nations Website Date: June 14, 2018   At the Thirty-eight Session of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations, which starts in Geneva on June 16, the NGO CAP-LC, which enjoys consultative ECOSOC status at the UN, filed a document denouncing the arbitrary detention of thousands of members of The Church […]