Xavier Camus’s Blog
Under the pretext of budget savings, the MIVILUDES (Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combating Sectarian Deviations) is set to disappear, and its missions would now fall under the responsibility of the single Ministry of the Interior’s prevention unit for delinquency and radicalization.
This decision is serious and worrying.
On one hand, as Georges Fenech (President of the MIVILUDES from 2008 to 2012) points out, the fight against sects and against radicalization are two different battles. Cases of mental control can be found in the religious world, as well as in health, education, sports, and in the associative or professional world. Not to mention the creation of micro political parties capturing public aid. The prevention and fight against sectarian deviations therefore require an interministerial action.
On the other hand, for over 17 years of existence under this name, MIVILUDES has published detailed annual reports warning of the dangers and risks of sects. It has coordinated the interministerial preventive and combative action of public authorities against sects by particularly training public service agents (notably those of National Education) to spot and identify sectarian deviations. It has also conducted a public information campaign about the dangers of the mental control exerted by certain movements and supported the actions of associations combating them. I am particularly thinking of ADFI-06 chaired by Jocelyne Charbon, who has co-organized with my students numerous information meetings at the university.
This interministerial mission was therefore highly effective in combating sectarian deviations (which are perpetually evolving) and affirming the role of the secular Republic in protecting our citizens.
One can only be dismayed by the disappearance of this international reference point embodied by the MIVILUDES structure. Let’s hope that the numerous reactions from associations and moral authorities will prompt the government to reconsider this decision.
