I don't disagree, but it is certainly problematic that the state gets to decide what groups are in the list of cults, which introduces a state-sponsorship of some religions over others based on what are arguably arbitrary criteria. (Jehova's Witnesses delegate their relations with society to a hierarchical organization more than, say, Roman Catholics?  Seriously?)  Here is where the separation of church and state in France becomes questionable, as it is in many otherwise liberal countries with respect to religion.