The New Heretics of France: Minority Religions, la République, and the Government-Sponsored "War on Sects" is a book by Susan J. Palmer. It was published in 2011 by Oxford University Press. Palmer is a sociologist of religion who has authored several other books on new religious movements (NRMs), and is a professor in religious studies. The book focuses on what Palmer calls the "French sect wars" – the anti-cult efforts of the French government and anti-cult groups – placing it into historical context and analyzing it along with the French conception of secularism, laïcité.

The book is split into three sections, with the first discussing the development of the anti-cult movement in France and its roots in the French Revolution. The second profiles six case study NRMs and their involvement in the "sect wars": Aumism, the Church of Scientology, the Raëlian movement, Tabitha's Place, Horus, and Néo-Phare. The third section contains Palmer's conclusions on French secularism, the anti-cult movement in France, and what drives it. The book received largely positive reviews, with most reviewers praising the observations, thesis, and case studies of the individual groups, as well as the coverage of a hard to research topic. Some aspects of the historical context given received a more mixed reception, with some commentators criticizing its accuracy and lack of precision. Some reviewers noted or criticized the writing as overly opinionated.

The New Heretics of France was published October 21, 2011 by Oxford University Press. Its author, Susan J. Palmer, is a sociologist of religion and researcher of new religious movements, as well as a professor in the Religious Studies department of Dawson College and Concordia University. She has authored several other books on the topic. There was an increase in NRMs in the west starting in the 1960s; many groups were highly controversial. The relatives of many people in such groups were concerned, and some NRMs have practice eccentric behavior, especially regarding sex, alternative medicine, and child raising. The research conducted for the book was done over a 10 year period. The book is supplemented and sourced with several interviews, as well as newspaper reports and expert testimony. Palmer interviewed the leader of one of the NRMs profiled in the book, Arnaud Mussy.

France's concept of secularism, called laïcité, has been noted to be very different from the North American conception of it; historian Joan Wallach Scott described the American version as being intended to protect religions from the government, and the French version as being intended to protect individuals from religion. While this was initially mainly aimed against the Catholic Church, later on it became more targeted at minority religions, such as Islam, or newly invented religions.

Following the Order of the Solar Temple case, in which members of a NRM committed ritual mass murder-suicide in several incidents in the 1990s, there was renewed support for state intervention against purported cults amongst politicians, the media and the populace. This resulted in several initiatives, including the creation of several inter-ministerial task forces designed to address cults, and the passage of the About–Picard law, which made "brainwashing" a criminal offense. In 1996, there was a report that officially listed 173 movements as cults, in some cases leading to the members facing increased outside pressure. Some French academics who study NRMs have faced defamation lawsuits and police investigations due to their research.

In an introduction, Palmer declares her objective to be to provide an accurate account of the conflict, what Palmer calls the "French sect wars", and says that though she does not "expect my readers to care about whether Scientology or any other sect succeeds in its struggle for social legitimacy, surely the French public’s perception of, or attitude toward, Muslims, Protestants, Orthodox Jews, Buddhists and Sikhs does matter", viewing the conflict as reinforcing bias against all non-Catholic religion in France. She argues that members of NRMs are "heretics", "not of the Catholic Church, but of the laïcité". She uses the French term sectes without translating it as either "cult" or "sect".

The work is divided into three sections. The first focuses on the development and background of the anti-cult movement in France and its roots in the French Revolution, as well as the concept of laïcité. She follows many of the specific legal actions performed by the French state to fight cults, including the About–Picard law, the report of sectes, and the formation of the anti-cult organizations UNADFI and MIVILUDES. Both organizations did not respond to Palmer's request for interview. She points out the Solar Temple case as deeply influencing government and public opinion on these issues.

The second section is the longest, and contains six case studies of NRMs and how they were impacted by the "sect wars". Aumism, Church of Scientology, Raëlian movement, Tabitha's Place, Horus, and Néo-Phare. Néo-Phare was a small NRM that was the first invocation of the About–Picard anti-cult law. She argues that the invocation of the law to charge the group's leader with brainwashing was misplaced. Palmer criticizes what she calls mediabolization, or the involvement of the media in the fight against these groups. The third and final section covers Palmer's conclusions on the "sect wars". The book contains two indexes: first, the contents of a questionnaire that aimed to survey the effects of the "secte" label on the groups that had been listed in the Guyard Report, and another containing several interviews conducted in the course of the book's research.