CESNUR, the Center for Studies on New Religions, was established in 1988 by a group of religious scholars from leading universities in Europe and the Americas.

Its managing director, professor Massimo Introvigne, has held teaching positions in the field of sociology and history of religion in a number of Italian universities. He is the author of twenty-three books and the editor of another ten in the field of religious sciences.

CESNUR's original aim was to offer a professional association to scholars specialized in religious minorities, new religious movements, contemporary esoteric, spiritual and agnostic schools, and the new religious consciousness in general.

In the 1990s it became apparent that inaccurate information was being disseminated to the media and the public powers by activists associated with the international anti-cult movement. Some new religious movements also disseminated unreliable or partisan information. CESNUR became more pro-active and started supplying information on a regular basis, opening public centers and organising conferences and seminars for the general public in a variety of countries.

Today CESNUR is a network of independent but related organizations of scholars in various countries, devoted to promote scholarly research in the field of new religious consciousness, to spread reliable and responsible information, and to expose the very real problems associated with some movements, while at the same time defending everywhere the principles of religious liberty.

Perhaps CESNUR's most well-known publishing project is the response by 22 scholars to the French parliamentary report of 1996. CESNUR's book, Pour en finir avec les sectes, went into three printings in one year and has played a significant role in casting doubts about the reliability of the French report. Criticism of other parliamentary or public reports (Canton of Geneva, Belgium) and suggestions for an alternative approach have been circulated on the Internet, through press conferences, and through the multilingual Lettre du CESNUR.

www.cesnur.org