Anne Morelli

Who is Anne Morelli?

Anne Morelli is a Belgian historian of Italian origins, specialized in the history of religions and minorities. She is currently assistant director of the Interdisciplinary center for study of religion and secularism of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, where she is a teacher.

Morelli claims she is atheist and considers herself as belonging to the far left.

She directed in 1995 a book about The Great myths of the history of Belgium, Flanders and Wallonia, a global attempt by new historians of Belgium to deconstruct nationalist myths e.g. created by the official historiography for nation-building purpose.

Anne Morelli is particularly known for her opinions on cults or new religious movements. Like other sociologists and historians, she believes that churches are different from cults only through their relationship to power, and that they are "totalitarian institutions" as well as prisons, hospitals, barracks, boarding houses and some companies.

In 2005, during the 36th annual conference of the International Association of Labour History Institutions in Ghent, she said at the international conference of anti-globalism that no movement has ever achieved a change without using violence. Morelli was part of a group which welcomed Pierre Carette, the main leader of a terrorist group active in 1984-1985, Communist Combatant Cells, when he was released from prison after 17 years, an unusual long imprisonment in Belgium.