1,200 sect-like organisations active in Belgium

More than 1,200 sect-like religious or philosophical groupings are currently operating in Belgium, report the Sudpresse newspapers today. The trend is growing, says Eric Brasseur, director of the Centre for Information and Advice on Harmful Sect-like Organisations. “It is not who you think that has the most followers,” he says, referring to the Church of Scientology. “They’d have you believe they have thousands of followers in our country but that is plain wrong. They have only 300, half of whom are people who were already working for them elsewhere and were brought to Belgium.” One movement whose membership is stagnating is the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who have 25,000 members in Belgium. Pentecostal churches and groups focusing on health and wellbeing, meanwhile, are experiencing a boom in Belgium, something Brasseur describes as “quite disturbing”.