"Moral panics about minority religions are created by generalizing a single incident. The incident is real. It is not invented. What is invented is the claim that the incident is typical of a whole category of events or organizations. …Two concluding observations. Let me repeat once again that the incidents and crimes leading to the generalizations creating the moral panic are real. Their perpetrators should be punished and cannot invoke freedom of religion as an excuse. But they should be punished individually on a case by case basis without cracking down on entire categories and lumping together both the guilty and the innocent. Second, coming back to the example of the snake, not all the snakes of moral panics are wild. Some come from snake farms, where they are carefully nurtured and unleashed against religious minorities when needed. The scholars of moral panics emphasize the figure of the “moral entrepreneurs” who organize them. In our field, they include groups such as , the European umbrella organization of anti-cult movements, which was already mentioned in this conference [the founding meeting of the African Forum for Religious and Spirituality Liberty (AFRSL)]. When they exploit an incident to target a variety of groups and limit religious liberty, it may be too late to oppose them. We should create structures preventing the moral entrepreneurs from creating moral panics now."
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Massimo Introvigne, "Religious Liberty and the Dangerous Snake of Moral Panic", Bitter Winter (December 2023)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moral_panic
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Moral panic
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