Violence Against Christians, Churches Rising Across Europe, Monitor Says (Worthy News In-Depth)

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief

VIENNA/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Concerns are mounting over increasing violence against Christians and churches across Europe after dozens of churches, religious symbols and worshipers were targeted in July, including cases involving bodily waste, arson and the stabbing of a woman praying in an Irish Catholic church.

The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe (OIDAC Europe) said its July analysis documented “40 anti-Christian hate crimes targeting Christian places of worship, religious symbols, cemeteries, clergy, worshipers, Christian converts, and other Christian individuals.”

The Vienna-based group said the July figure matched the 40 incidents it recorded in June and followed 41 in March, the highest monthly total so far this year.

The figures come amid evidence that while the overall number of recorded anti-Christian incidents has fluctuated, violence against individual Christians and attacks involving fire have increased significantly.

OIDAC recorded 2,211 anti-Christian hate crimes across Europe in 2024, which were slightly fewer than the 2,444 documented in 2023. However, personal attacks rose from 232 to 274, while 94 arson attacks targeting churches and other Christian sites were recorded — nearly twice the previous year’s number.

VIOLENT ATTACKS RISING

The Observatory said the slight decline in the overall total was partly due to incomplete British police data and a temporary decrease in France, while personal attacks increased despite unavailable 2024 data from France and Britain.

The figures followed earlier increases. OIDAC documented 2,444 anti-Christian hate crimes in 35 European countries in 2023, while the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) recorded 1,230 cases reported by 10 European governments that year, up from 1,029 in 2022.

Germany has experienced a particularly sharp increase. OIDAC said German government figures showed 337 politically motivated anti-Christian hate crimes in 2024, up nearly 22 percent from 277 in 2023.

That followed a more than doubling of Germany’s recorded anti-Christian hate crimes from 135 in 2022 to 277 in 2023.

OIDAC describes itself as seeking to “contribute to a Europe where Christians may fully exercise their fundamental rights to freedom of religion, conscience, expression, and association, without fear of reprisals, censorship, threats, or violence.”

GERMANY TOPS JULY LIST

The organization compiles monthly and annual reports using its own research alongside police records and information from other organizations and submits findings to the OSCE for annual hate-crime reporting.

Germany recorded the highest number of incidents in OIDAC’s July analysis, with 15, followed by France with 10, Italy with five, the United Kingdom with three and Poland with two.

Vandalism was the most common category, with 18 incidents, followed by eight arson-related attacks and seven cases of desecration.

OIDAC also documented two incidents involving physical violence against Christians, two involving threats, two thefts of religious objects and one incident combining vandalism and violence.

Some of the most disturbing cases involved churches being desecrated with human or animal waste.

CHURCHES DESECRATED

At St. Johann Catholic Church in Bad Dürrheim, Germany, OIDAC said a 40-year-old man left excrement inside the church before damaging its interior while under the influence of alcohol.

Broken glass doors and windows reportedly contributed to damage estimated at about 15,000 euros ($17,500).

At another German Catholic church, dog feces were reportedly placed in front of the altar, while at St. Boniface Church in Abenheim unknown perpetrators allegedly urinated in the holy-water font.

In France, St. Symphorien Church in Chambray-lès-Tours was vandalized, with consecrated hosts reportedly scattered across the floor and excrement left near the entrance.

At Sancta Maria in Albis Church in Breil-sur-Roya, France, OIDAC said a threatening message was discovered stating: “The only church that illuminates is the one that burns.”

WOMAN STABBED PRAYING

One of July’s most serious incidents occurred at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Tramore, Ireland, where a woman in her 50s was stabbed while praying shortly before morning Mass.

Irish authorities said the woman suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to University Hospital Waterford.

A 36-year-old man was subsequently charged with assault causing harm and possession of a knife, while a court ordered a psychiatric assessment.

Authorities have not established that anti-Christian hatred motivated the stabbing, highlighting the difficulties involved in determining whether every crime occurring inside a church should be classified as religiously motivated.

OIDAC also excluded other incidents affecting Christians or churches where it concluded there was insufficient evidence of an explicitly anti-Christian motive.

ISLAMIST FACTOR

Yet OIDAC has expressed particular concern about an Islamist dimension to some anti-Christian violence in Europe.

In its analysis of 2023 incidents where the motive or background of perpetrators could be established, OIDAC said the largest category involved a “radical Islamist background.”

Of 69 such cases documented by the organization, 21 involved a radical Islamist background, compared with 14 attributed to anti-religious motives, 13 to the radical left and 12 to other political motivations.

OIDAC said the number of cases involving an Islamist background had risen from 11 in 2022 to 21 in 2023.

One particularly severe case cited by the organization involved a Christian convert from Islam in Britain who was repeatedly stabbed while in bed by an attacker who allegedly viewed him as an “apostate” deserving death.

EXTREMISM CONCERNS

OIDAC has also documented threats against churches from suspected Islamist extremists, including heightened security around major European churches amid terrorism warnings.

More recently, the organization highlighted the case of a teenager in Germany suspected of preparing an ISIS-inspired attack against a Christian church.

Such cases have contributed to an increasingly contentious debate over whether radical Islam and increased migration from predominantly Muslim countries have contributed to hostility experienced by some Christians in Europe.

Yet Christian organizations have pointed to documented cases in which Christians — particularly converts from Islam — have faced threats, intimidation or violence from Muslims after reaching Europe.

OIDAC has stressed that identifying perpetrators and their motives remains difficult, as many offenders are never identified and police do not always disclose information about their backgrounds.

CHRISTIANS IN ASYLUM CENTERS

The issue has been particularly sensitive in the Netherlands, where Christian organizations have raised concerns about the treatment of Christian asylum seekers living alongside Muslims in reception centers.

OIDAC has highlighted reports from the Netherlands of Syrian Christians facing threats, harassment and intimidation in asylum accommodations, with some reportedly becoming reluctant to display Christian symbols or openly practice their faith.

Such tensions can be especially acute for converts from Islam because abandoning the Islamic religion is often regarded as apostasy, with religious and legal penalties advocated or imposed in several countries.

Iran, for example, has severely persecuted Christian converts from Islam, while in Pakistan Christians and other minorities face blasphemy laws carrying severe penalties, including death, as well as mob violence and allegations of forced conversion.

Christian converts arriving in Europe can therefore find themselves living alongside people from societies where changing or abandoning one’s religion remains highly controversial.

MOTIVES OFTEN UNKNOWN

OIDAC has documented similar concerns elsewhere in Europe and has argued that authorities need to ensure Christian converts and other religious minorities can practice their faith safely in refugee accommodations.

Yet German statistics cited by OIDAC demonstrate the complexity: among politically motivated attacks on churches for which backgrounds were classified, right-wing political motives represented the largest category, followed by religious ideologies and left-wing political motives.

However, the available evidence shows that radical Islam is one identifiable component of anti-Christian hostility in Europe alongside several other motivations.

OIDAC has warned that the cumulative impact of such incidents can create a climate in which Christians become reluctant to express their faith openly.

The growing concern has also prompted debate among Christian scholars, pastors and religious-freedom advocates about how believers should respond and whether difficulties faced by Christians should primarily be framed as a human-rights issue.

CHRISTIAN RIGHTS DEBATE

Many Christian organizations argue that freedom of religion is a fundamental human right rooted in the inherent dignity of every person and that Christians should use legal protections available to them while defending the same freedoms for people of other faiths and none.

Yet some Christian thinkers and pastors have mixed feelings about presenting Christian suffering mainly through the language of rights, noting that Scripture also portrays persecution, sacrifice and suffering for Christ as realities believers may be called to endure.

Their concern is generally not that Christians should be denied protection from violence or discrimination, but that a purely rights-based approach risks overlooking Christianity’s theological understanding of suffering, forgiveness and responding to persecution.

Within Christian circles, persecution reports are also sometimes viewed first and foremost as calls for prayer rather than primarily as appeals for justice through what believers may describe as “worldly courts” or secular rights organizations. This approach draws on Biblical teachings urging Christians to pray for those who persecute them and to leave ultimate judgment to God.

Other Christian scholars argue that the approaches need not conflict and that defending religious freedom for everyone can itself reflect the Christian belief in the God-given dignity of every human being.

OIDAC URGES ACTION

For OIDAC, the available evidence demonstrates a persistent problem affecting churches, Christian communities and visible expressions of Christianity across the continent.

The organization has called for greater recognition of anti-Christian hate crimes and improved protection of freedom of religion or belief.

“The July data continue to demonstrate a persistent pattern of attacks affecting Christian places of worship, religious symbols, Christian communities and visible expressions of the Christian faith across Europe,” OIDAC concluded.

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