Massimo Introvigne: The Influencing Methods of Religious Extremists

In October 2016, a one-off event took place in Odessa. The former Professor Massimo Introvigne visited Ukraine. Dr. Introvigne is a former representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on combating Racism, Xenophobia, and Discrimination, a post he held in 2011. Five years later, he as one of the masters of modern academic science came to Ukraine as a private person. This visit was hosted neither by the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, nor by the Metropolitan Institute of Philosophy, but by a private institution — the “International Schicksalsanalyse Community Research Institute” headed by Ukrainian scholar Oleg Maltsev. The official topic of the announced seminar, which was conducted by Professor Introvigne, was as follows: “A scientific meeting to enhance the skills of Ukrainian scholars, lawyers, and journalists.”

To understand the uniqueness of the event, here are a few facts from the biography of the outstanding Italian sociologist of religions, Massimo Introvigne. This scholar is not only a professor and founding director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) in Italy, but also a consultant to the governments of various countries such as Italy, the United States, and the Vatican. In addition, Massimo Introvigne has repeatedly acted as a consultant to the FBI. It is obvious that he has an unquestionable authority in the world academic arena. 

The first day of the scientific meeting focused on the fears and misconceptions widespread in today’s society. Dr. Introvigne discussed how people get taken in by religious extremist propaganda. He set out a series of key points, beginning with the confusion over the terminology of sects and cults used by religious extremists to manipulate and intimidate modern society.

The Professor also gave the example of the mid-20th century, where a key element of the ideology of religious extremists was the idea of “brainwashing”. At that time, the CIA even conducted experiments trying to prove that this phenomenon exists, explaining it very simply: “your brain is like a vinyl record, and communists can re-record this disk literally in two minutes”. The attempt at such experiments ended in tragedy.

In our time, however, the methods of influence of religious extremists have taken on a slightly different appearance. What we know today is that there are two categories of courts in modern society: the court in terms of jurisprudence and the court based on public opinion. In this scenario, public opinion is often the more dangerous of the two. If religious extremists cannot attack a target in court, they will attack their victims through the second method, by manipulating public opinion through the media. 

“When religious extremists begin to act, it may seem that their movements are quite slow. A person may think that nothing terrible has happened. A few articles in the newspapers, a little video on the Internet, and a few cartoons are enough. You have to understand that a manifestation of intolerance which is not dangerous for you today, might become a real danger in the future”, Massimo Introvigne said.

In 2011, during an international conference in Rome, attended by participants from 57 countries, Professor Massimo Introvigne presented what he termed the “Rome formula.” This formula shows that if someone wishes to destroy a certain organization up to and including the physical destruction of its members, they will have to influence society through certain stages. Using a number of historical examples, Professor Introvigne demonstrated the playbook of religious extremists. As a result, his formula was officially adopted by the OSCE.

Materials on the subject:

1. Video announcement of Professor Introvigne’s visit to Odessa, 2016  

2. Report from the first day of Professor Introvigne’s visit to Odessa: Fears and Delusions

3. Report from the second day of Professor Introvigne’s arrival: CIA project collapse. Brainwashing doesn’t exist

4. Report from the third day of Professor Introvigne’s visit: How did Nazis turn Germans into Jew haters?

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