Let’s Learn From, Not Repeat, History Just as Vivien and MILS are ready with assurances that their actions do not pose a threat to freedom of conscience, so Congressman Velde, chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee, brushed aside fears that the Committee threatened people’s freedom of thought: “In my opinion, any person can think anything he wants to, as long as he doesn’t do or perform any overt act which would be considered disloyal, and therefore, as far as freedom of thought is concerned, I think we’ll make no inroads on that freedom whatsoever by our investigation.” But he was wrong. Senator Joseph McCarthy was eventually condemned by the U.S. Senate and fell from grace. He died in 1957. By that time, McCarthyism had already eroded civil liberties in the United States. On the pretext of protecting the nation from communist infiltration, federal agents attacked individual rights and extended state power into movie studios, universities, labor unions, and many other independent institutions. We are faced with a similar danger in France. The hysteria over the “sect issue” is being used to bring forward laws of exception targetting religion and to justify legislation curtailing civil liberties in education, health, and the judiciary. But there was one difference between the “Red scare” and the “sect scare.” McCarthy could define “Communist”. Today’s “anti-sect” inquisitors refuse to define what a “sect” is, so they open wide the door to abuse. One of the About-Picard bill’s co-authors, MP Catherine Picard, wasted no time after the National Assembly vote on the law on 30 May 2001 to boast that it applies to all groups, “whether spiritual, ethnological or philosophical.” She outlined her goal in an interview with the Christian Broadasting Network when she proclaimed that a fundamental human right is illegal in France: “Proselytizing is not authorized by the French government. When religious groups talk about having the right to proselytize—the local government may authorize such activities but in reality such practices are illegal.” Who is next? Or will the lessons of history be learned?