A group of fringe academics has colluded with England's doomsday cult, helping to smear its critics and bolster the group. They have a long history of covering up heinous abuses within dangerous cults.

Be Scofield is a prominent cult reporter who exposed Love Has Won, which led to the hit HBO series. She is the author of Hunting Lucifer: One Reporter's Search for Cults and Demons. Her work is cited by the NY Times, Rolling Stone, People, and more. It was also turned into an episode of "Unwell" on Netflix.

By BE SCOFIELD

8/24/2025

Last week, England's doomsday cult, made famous by global news headlines, convened a secretive gathering called the "Supremacy of God" conference. It took place Aug. 20 and 21 behind closed doors at the University of Buckingham's Crewe campus, with access restricted to invited participants.

Organized and funded by the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light, or AROPL, the conference featured panels in which a roster of academics defended the group against accusations of being a cult. The sect covered travel, lodging, and meals, and the speakers unanimously praised the controversial group.

Among the participants were some of the most divisive figures in the field of new religious studies: Massimo Introvigne, Holly Folk, Gordon Melton, Susan Palmer, and Eileen Barker. Watchdog groups and cult survivors have long criticized these "cult apologists" for downplaying abuses in groups like Scientology, Aum Shinrikyo, Jonestown and the Children of God, the latter of which faced widespread allegations of child sexual abuse. These scholars deny the existence of cults and say there was no brainwashing in places like Jonestown.

The Supremacy of God conference in Crewe saw cult apologist scholars collude with England's doomsday cult.

At the center of AROPL is Abdullah Hashem, described by cult expert Janja Lalich as leading a “doomsday cultic group with megalomaniacal aspirations.” Hashem claims to have performed miracles, including raising the dead and curing the blind, and has urged followers to sell their homes and relocate to a gated compound in Crewe. Former members accuse him of sexual misconduct, taking blood oaths, coercing abortions, arranging marriages, ordering others to perform sexual acts, and urging devotees to kill on his behalf.

His sermons are infused with visions of imminent catastrophe—“a flood of blood,” pandemics “worse than the Black Death,” and famines so dire that “people will eat people out of hunger.” Only those who accept Hashem as their savior will be spared. After the death of Pope Francis, Hashem declared himself the “true and legitimate pope,” claiming the pontiff was killed by his followers’ chants in Rome. Hashem also claims to be the rightful successor of both Jesus and Muhammad.

Last year the same group of cult apologists led by Massimo Introvigne appeared inside the sect's gated compound to speak at their event. Videos depict Hashem leading them through the highly secure facility, their eyes wide with awe at their surroundings.

Holly Folk, professor of religious studies at Western Washington University, embedded herself with AROPL. In July she gave a talk inside the compound praising the group and telling them former cult members shouldn't be believed. “One shouldn’t trust ex-cult member accounts,” she said. “They should not be considered reliable.” It's a view shared widely among her fellow cult apologists.

Folk says in the talk she first learned of AROPL when Massimo Introvigne mentioned during a trip to Japan that he was “working on this group in England” and that “they need some help.” Folk also appeared via livestream at the recent "Supremacy of God" conference.

“One shouldn’t trust ex-cult member accounts,” she told the audience. “They should not be considered reliable.”

The use of the term "help" is striking in a field that traditionally values scholarly detachment. Yet cult apologists have acknowledged a personal affinity for such groups. Susan Palmer has spoken of what she called a “sneaking aesthetic appreciation for ‘the cults,’” describing them as “baby religions” and remarking, “Personally, I find cults (and babies) attractive.”

Professor Holly Folk speaks from inside AROPL's compound in July 2025.

Palmer also embedded herself within the sect for several weeks and similarly whitewashes concerns. Prior to AROPL, Palmer strongly defended cult leader Gregorian Bivolaru, who was convicted of sex with a minor in 2013 in Romania. After French police raided his compound in 2023 and arrested him, Palmer came to his defense in several articles. The BBC reported, "French prosecutors began investigating the group in July for alleged abuse, rape, human trafficking and kidnapping." Introvigne, too, has extensively defended Bivolaru, writing an entire book about him called Sacred Eroticism.

When Australia's government concluded that the Jehovah's Witnesses systematically covered up over 1,000 cases of child sex abuse, Folk came to their defense. "The accusation that there was a cover-up is also not true," she wrote in an article that grossly distorted the facts. Folk claims the religious group was "unfairly targeted."

Professor Folk praised the atmosphere within AROPL, comparing it to that of an American Quaker meeting or a Waldorf school. “I feel very at home,” she told the group. “People have been very kind and helpful. It really inspires a sense of trust.” Pushing back against media critics, she stated that communitarian religions are not uncommon, citing monasteries and intentional communities. "If a woman joins a convent, she brings her savings as the equivalent of a dowry," Folk said.

The Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light is authoritarian in structure, however. "People are traveling from all corners of the world to support one man," the group's outreach director, Ailia Muhammad, states. The group is centered on absolute obedience to Abdullah Hashem. “If we obey a man sent by God, we are, in truth, obeying God,” read one recent post on the group’s Facebook page. "To those who sincerely seek to worship the One True God, understand that this worship is only realized through obedience to His appointed Messenger."

Holly Folk defended Jehovah's Witnesses when they were found to have covered up over 1,000 cases of child sexual abuse.

Followers are required to post video pledges to Hashem, saying, "Upon this I shall live, upon this I shall die, and upon this I shall be resurrected again." He's also raising what equates to a small army, known as the Soldiers of Qaim. "We believe in our father," a member says in front of a group of men dressed in all black, fists pumping in the air. "We are his soldiers."

None of this amounts to a convent or intentional community; rather, it resembles a cult of personality within an apocalyptic container. Living in a gated community and worshipping a self-proclaimed messiah who has been accused of sexual abuse, among other things, should raise serious concerns.

Massimo Introvigne speaking from inside the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light's cult compound in 2024.

In May, Introvigne awarded Abdullah Hashem’s book The Goal of the Wise a prize to "express solidarity" with them. The sect grossly inflated the event, claiming in a post online he "has been awarded the 2025 Best International Book Award in the category of Religion and Spirituality at the International Book Fair in Turin." In reality, the honor was bestowed not by the Turin fair itself but by a group of sympathetic academics meeting in a fringe committee.

Just a few weeks prior, Introvigne presented alongside an AROPL leader at a religious conference with a few of his colleagues, all of whom praised the group. He also platformed them at his annual CESNUR gathering, ignoring obvious signs in their presentations of being in a cultic group. Eileen Barker moderated one of the AROPL sessions alongside Introvigne.

Barker is infamous for having taken 18 paid trips funded by the Moonie cult to "study" them. Unsurprisingly, she concluded they didn’t use brainwashing or coercion. Barker is described as the “mother of all cult apologists.”

If the advocacy for the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light wasn't enough, Introvigne and his colleagues have now unleashed a smear campaign against myself and other critics of the sect. He's published seven articles by cult apologists attacking me as "delusional," "ignorant," and "bigoted." The smear pieces claim I "experience psychotic episodes" and rely on extraterrestrials as my "primary sources" for reporting. They also attack my LGBTQ status, claim I "take credit" for violence against cults, and allege I've lied about my work leading to TV shows, lied in my reporting, and more.

Massimo Introvigne has waged a smear campaign on behalf of the cult.

Hit pieces are standard tactics for cults, but to see third-party academics writing them on behalf of a cult is unique. For the "crime" of being the first journalist to expose AROPL, I'm being punished. The cult apologists replicated these same smears during the recent "Supremacy of God" conference, repeatedly displaying my image on screen. The distinction between AROPL and these scholars appears to be non-existent.

The irony of smearing me while sidestepping the grandiose claims and troubling allegations against Abdullah Hashem is striking. The cult apologists also ignore Hashem's ridicule of other faiths—something they are supposedly against. He sent a delegation to Rome to protest what he calls the "false pope," says Christianity is the biggest lie, and claims Islam is 99% wrong. Hashem even produced a mini documentary about how he and his followers killed the pope by chanting his name, thanks to God's miracle. He also routinely mocks and maligns Islamic scholars.

Cult apologists Massimo Introvigne, Eileen Barker, Susan Palmer, and others stand in front of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light's compound, holding Abdullah Hashem's book.

Another key cult apologist who defended AROPL at their "Supremacy of God" conference was Gordon Melton. In 1995 he and James Lewis had expenses paid by the Aum Shinrokyo cult to fly to Japan and defend them after the sarin gas subway attack that killed 13 people. They told the press they investigated and that the cult couldn't have produced the sarin gas. They chastised the government for "religious persecution." Just days later, however, the group's poison stockpile that was used was found, leaving the men with proverbial egg on their face.

Melton also downplayed and minimized child sexual abuse within the Children of God cult, also known as The Family. He was paid over $10,000 by the cult and wrote a book, Sex, Slander, and Salvation, that a scholar deemed was a "made-to-order PR effort." Professor Stephen Kent said Melton used "hand-picked individuals" for his book who were well-rehearsed and coached. Religious scholar Robert Balch reviewed the book, saying, "Sources of information were limited exclusively to committed members and Family literature failing to triangulate it with ex-member testimony."

Given the track record of these cult apologists defending cults accused of child sex abuse, rape, and human trafficking, it's not surprising that they are rushing to the defense of Abdullah Hashem, accused of sexual abuse and more. In his book Goal of the Wise, Hashem says that paradise refers to earth and that “there is no right or wrong.” He writes that within this paradise, boys are “also for sex” for both “men and the women.”

SEE MORE: Meet the Doomsday Cult Taking Over the World

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