August 22 is the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief. The day was established at the initiative of the UN General Assembly in 2019. Data from the Vienna-based Monitoring Centre on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC) shows that the number of anti-Christian hate crimes has increased by 44%.
The Observatory warns against a significant increase in anti-Christian acts. Violence against Christians in Europe has increased significantly in recent years.
In the West, we tend to think of violence against followers of Christ as primarily a problem in African and Asian countries. While it is important to highlight these dramatic examples of persecution that occur there, we should also pay special attention to what is happening in Europe.
– said Anja Hoffmann, Executive Director of OIDAC Europe.
The attacks are getting more intense
The OIDAC report shows that 90 percent of these incidents were directed against churches and cemeteries, and 84 personal attacks against Christians motivated by religious hatred were also documented. According to the observatory, the brutal attacks have not stopped in 2024. Since the beginning of the year, 25 cases of physical violence, threats and attempted murder of Christians have been documented in Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Poland and Serbia. In some cases, entire communities have been targeted. For example, in June, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Dijon was attacked with tear gas during a service, causing panic and injuring nine people. The OIDAC Europe report also documents, among other things: A 75% increase in cases of arson in churches.
Most anti-Christian attacks in Europe are directed against churches and cemeteries, but unfortunately we also continue to see brutal attacks against followers of Christ.
Hoffmann explained.
A particularly vulnerable group
One group particularly exposed to violence is Christian converts from Islam.
In May, a British court sentenced a man to prison for attempting to kill Javed Nouri, a Christian convert from a Muslim background, because the perpetrator considered Nouri an apostate who “deserved to die.”
In April, an Italian court ruled in a similar case involving a Tunisian Christian convert who was beaten by his compatriots for “attending a Christian church.”
According to OIDAC Europe, both cases received little media attention.
The right to change religion is an important element of religious freedom. European governments must therefore do everything they can to protect, in particular, Christian converts from Muslim backgrounds who are at high risk of violence.
– emphasized Hoffmann.
Radical left-wing groups
According to OIDAC, radical left-wing groups are behind the attacks on Christians, whose main aim is to denigrate the Churches. They use slogans such as “Expel all Christians” and “God is trans”. Another challenge comes from radical Muslims who in France have defaced 50 graves with Islamic graffiti, writing, among other things, that “France already belongs to Allah”.
READ ALSO:
— Parody of the “Last Supper” at the opening of the games. Cardinal Raymond Burke: an incredible manifestation of darkness and sin
— Anti-Christian incidents in Israel! Jewish ultranationalists have once again attacked the New Polish House of Elizabethan Sisters
md/tysol.pl
