Regulating Religion Case Studies from Around the Globe

Regulating Religion: Case Studies from Around the Globe presents, through the inclusion of contributions by international scholars, a global examination of how a number of contemporary societies are regulating religious groups. It focuses on legal efforts to exert social control over such groups, especially through court cases, but also with selected major legislative attempts to regulate them. As such, this analysis falls within the broad area of the sociology of social control and more specifically, legal social control, a topic of great interest when studying how contemporary societies attempt to maintain social order. The factual details about social and legal developments in societies where religion has been defined as problematic include Western and Eastern Europe, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas.

This book will be of interest to researchers and students in the sociology of religion, the sociology of law, social policy, and religious studies as well as policy makers.

1. Regulating Religion: A Sociologicaland Historical Introduction.- 2. ‘Laïcité,’ ‘Dystopia,’ and the Reaction to New Religious Movements in France.- 3. Anti-Cultism in the French Parliament: Desperate Last Stand or an Opportune Leap Forward? ACritical Analysis of the 12 June 2001 Act.- 4. Is There a Unique French Policy of Cults? A European Perspective.- 5. Holy Mountains and Anti-Cult Ecology: The Campaign against the Aumist Religion in France.- 6. The German Enquete Commission on Sects: Political Conflicts and Compromises.- 7. Germany’s Islamic Minority: Some Remarks on Historical and Legal Developments.- 8. Belgium’s Anti-Sect Policy.- 9. Pseudoscience versus Minority Religions: An Evaluation of the Brainwashing Theories of Jean-Marie Abgrall.- 10. Brainwashing Theories in European Parliamentary and Administrative Reports on Cults and Sects.- 11. The Twelve Tribes Messianic Communities, the Anti-Cult Movement, and Governmental Response.- 12. New Religions in the Republic of Italy.- 13. Foredoomed to Failure: The Anti-Cult Movement in the Netherlands.- 14. Regulating New Religions in Denmark.- 15. Social Justice and Minority Religions in Prison: The Case of England and Wales.- 16. Legal Regulation of Religions in Russia: New Development.- 17. New Religious Movements and the State in Poland.- 18. Anti-Cult Movements and Governmental Reports on “Sects and Cults”: The Case of Poland.- 19. Freedom of Religion and Minority Religions in Hungary.- 20. Law and Religion in the Czech Republic: Recent Developments.- 21. Religion and Society in Tension in Croatia: Social and Legal Status of Religious Communities.- 22. Religion and Law in Uzbekistan: Renaissance and Repression in an Authoritarian Context.- 23. Social Justice Issues in the Management of ReligiousDiversity in Australia.- 24. The Rehabilitation and Regulation of Religion in Singapore.- 25. Cult Controversies and Legal Developments Concerning New Religion s in Japan and China.- 26. Religion, Law, and Minorities in India: Problems with Judicial Regulation.- 27. Public Management of Religiou s Diversity in Canada: Development of Technocratic Pluralism.- 28. The Legal Situation of Religious Minorities in Mexico: The Current Situation, Problems, and Conflicts.- 29.Cult Controversies and Government Control of New Religious Movements in Argentina, 1985–2002.- 30. State and Federal Cooperation in Regulating New Religions: Oregon versus the Bhagwan Rajneesh.- 31. Mundane Materialism: Economic Survival and Theological Evolution within Jesus Movement Groups.- 32. Medicalization and Regulation of Deviant Religions: An Application of Conrad and Schneider’s Model.- 33. Religious Regulation and the Courts: The Judiciary’s Changing Role in Protecting Minority Religions from Majoritarian Rule.- About the Editor.