As part of a study of apologetic centers, an experiment was conducted at the Information Security Institute, which resulted in the exposure of the The Center in the Name of Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyons.
Dr. Oleg Maltsev, scientific director of the Information Security Institute, talks about the experiment, in which a whole project group participated.
The report on the denunciation of the Center in the Name of Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyons began with the discovery on this site of a new sect, “ASPN — Association for Self-Knowledge of Nierd”. The Center’s website publishes materials about various structures that have fallen into the category of sects. The question is: how are the materials published on the site and what kind of preliminary screening is conducted? As the experiment showed — none.
“The test of the objectivity of the Center in the name of Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyons will be that if we create a non-existent sect, with non-existent adepts, with a non-existent guru that we invented and the website accepts this information and publishes it, then the suggestion that there is no objectivity whatsoever will be confirmed,” says Oleg Maltsev.
The project group did so, the preliminary work was done to study the activities of apologetic centers, then the sect was invented, the name, the victims of this sect were invented, and after the material was published on the Internet, the material was sent to the Center in the name of Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyons. As a result, information about the new sect appeared on the Center’s website.
The scientific director of the institute explained why all this is being done:
“We invent a sect for some reason, which we then scare people with. Once there were bogeymen like the Russian Babai, with which to scare the gullible. When the bogeymen disappeared, sects arose. There is always some “babai” in society. And for these ‘babai’ to exist, there must be certain organizations that will scare people with these ‘babai’.”
Why do certain organizations choose to scare people?
Of course, all of these actions are subordinated to a certain goal. Once there is an invented sect, it is possible to discredit and attack people by associating them with it. For example, association with the sect can be used to discredit a businessperson, a public figure, or any other citizen who is deemed an obstacle or threat or adversary by the people inventing the sect. The false accusation can then be used to damage the target’s reputation and to eliminate, disrupt, disorganize, or terminate the target’s activities.
These kinds of apologetics and anti-cult centers often manage to evade legal structures. They are not official media and are not accountable to media watchdogs. They might have no legal registration of any kind. They thus tend to escape responsibility.
Materials on the topic:
1. Special episode of a program “Exposition of the Apologetic Center of Irenaeus of Lyon
