Originally published in The Christian Post
Anti-Christian hate crimes in Europe reached a total of 2 444 incidents in 2023, according to a report that compiled data from police and civil society sources across 35 European countries. The statistics include 232 personal attacks on Christians, ranging from harassment and threats to physical violence.
At least 1 230 anti-Christian hate crimes were allegedly committed by 10 of the European governments in 2023, an increase from 1 029 in 2022, said the report, titled Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe Report 2024, by OIDAC Europe, a watchdog organization.
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These incidents took place in countries including France, Germany and the United Kingdom, which experienced some of the highest numbers of recorded incidents, according to the report, which draws on data from various sources, including the OSCE’s (Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, or ODIHR, and government reports.
France saw nearly 1 000 anti-Christian hate crimes in 2023. The majority of these attacks — about 90% — were aimed at churches and cemeteries.
Further, French authorities documented 84 personal attacks on individuals. A notable incident involved two nuns in Nantes who left the city in March 2023 due to ongoing hostility, stating that they endured “beatings, spitting and insults”.
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In January 2023, arsonists attacked four churches in Paris using Molotov cocktails, which was highlighted by the French Religious Heritage Observatory, an organisation that also observed a rise in criminal arson incidents since 2023.
The UK also faced a significant number of incidents, with 702 cases reported in England and Wales between April 2023 and March 2024. This represented a 15% increase compared to the previous year. One particularly shocking attack occurred against Javed Nouri, a Christian convert from a Muslim background, who narrowly survived an attempted murder by his roommate, who viewed him as an “apostate who deserved to die”.
Germany witnessed a 105% increase in anti-Christian hate crimes, rising from 135 incidents in 2022 to 277 in 2023. However, the German government’s official statistics only include politically motivated hate crimes, excluding vandalism or arson attacks without political motives.
OIDAC Europe, using police data obtained from most German federal states, estimated that there were at least 2 000 cases of damage to Christian places of worship in Germany in 2023. This marked a worrying trend of escalating violence against Christian religious institutions across the country.
The countries that published police statistics on anti-Christian hate crimes in 2023 reported that the majority of incidents targeted places of worship.
Across Europe, OIDAC documented a total of 232 incidents involving verbal and physical attacks on Christians, supplemented by civil society data. The most common form of violence was vandalism, accounting for 62% of the incidents, including numerous cases involving desecration. Arson attacks made up 10%, threats 8% and physical violence 7%. OIDAC also recorded one case of murder, seven attempted murders and 68 personal attacks on Christians motivated by anti-Christian bias.
The perpetrators’ motives and backgrounds remain challenging to establish, as police authorities generally do not disclose this information, said the report. However, Germany provided some details, reporting 92 politically motivated attacks on churches in which the perpetrators’ motives could be classified.
These motives included “political right” (31 incidents), “religious ideologies” (16 incidents), and “political left” (14 incidents). Of the cases documented by OIDAC, those with identifiable motivations frequently involved radical Islamist backgrounds (21 incidents), followed by anti-religious motives (14 incidents) and radical left motivations (13 incidents).
Compared to 2022, the number of incidents involving Islamist backgrounds almost doubled from 11 to 21.
The report also listed a number of restrictions on religious freedom affecting Christians in Europe. These restrictions included fines and prosecutions for individuals engaging in public prayer, such as the instance of a man in the UK convicted for silently praying in his mind near an abortion clinic within a designated “buffer zone”.
The report also pointed to discrimination against Christians in public life and the workplace. Christian politicians, in particular, have faced discrimination for their personal beliefs, sometimes being forced to choose between their political careers and their faith. This type of workplace discrimination, along with other pressures, has led to an increasing trend of self-censorship among Christians, particularly younger individuals, who often hide their beliefs to avoid confrontation or harassment, it noted.
The findings suggest a “chilling effect” on the public expression of Christian faith in Europe. Workplace environments, university campuses and other public spaces have become increasingly hostile to the overt practice of Christian beliefs, the report noted.
In several European countries, Christians have faced restrictions on public prayer, manifestations of their beliefs, and in some instances, limitations on their parental rights and conscientious objections to specific medical procedures.
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