Hate crimes against Christians in Europe increased dramatically in 2023 over the prior year, with France, Germany and the U.K. cited as countries of concern, according to a new report.
The Vienna, Austria-based Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC Europe) found 2,444 anti-Christian hate crimes reported in 35 countries across Europe in 2023, compared with 748 hate crimes in 30 countries in the prior year’s report.
The anti-Christian hate crimes last year included 232 personal attacks involving violence, harassment and threats, the report noted.
The OIDAC Europe figures included data by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).
“As France and some other countries with high numbers did not submit their statistics to the OSCE, the actual numbers are even higher than the OSCE data suggests,” said Anja Hoffmann, executive director of OIDAC Europe. “As far as anti-Christian hate crimes are concerned, we have registered 2,444 cases for 2023 but assume a high number of unreported cases.”
The report cites nearly 1,000 anti-Christian hate crimes in France in 2023, with 700 in the U.K. and 277 in Germany. Cases in Germany represented a 105 percent increase compared with 2022, when 135 were reported. Additionally, German police recorded 2,000 cases of damages to church buildings and similar sites.
Regina Polak, OSCE Representative on Combating Racism, Xenophobia, and Discrimination, also focusing on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians and Members of Other Religions, said Christians had become the target of hate crimes across the OSCE region.
“Anti-Christian hate crimes send a message of exclusion to the victims and their communities, and to society as a whole,” Polak said. “We can observe an increase of discrimination and hate crimes against Christians also in Europe. These phenomena must also be seen in the broader context of intolerance and discrimination against other groups and in particular against members of religious communities, both minority and majority groups.”
Church building vandalism was the most common reported crime, at 62 percent of the cases, including desecration and beheading of religious statues. Arson attacks accounted for 10 percent of cases, and physical attacks 7 percent.
The reported physical violence included the attempted murder of a Christian in the U.K. who had converted from Islam, a car ramming attack in Poland and the murder of a Catholic church worker by an Islamist in Algeciras, Spain.
Workplaces were cited as a cause for concern in the report, with widespread discrimination reported against Christians espousing faith values in a number of European countries.
“In particular, Christians who adhere to traditional religious beliefs face increasing discrimination and hostility, ranging from bullying at work to the loss of employment,” Hoffmann said. ”It is very worrying that the peaceful expression of personal religious beliefs, for example on matters relating to marriage and family, has become the potential end of a political career or employment, or even the beginning of a court case.”
The report also cited European governments cracking down on religious freedoms, from bans on religious processions to targeting Christians for peacefully expressing their beliefs, such as a British army veteran found guilty of praying silently outside an abortion clinic.
Hoffmann has called for an EU coordinator to be appointed specifically to oversee efforts to combat anti-Christian hatred, similar to existing mandates for anti- semitism and anti-Muslim hatred in the European Union.
“These trends should alert us all to step up efforts to protect freedom of religion or belief, including the freedom to openly and respectfully discuss different philosophical and religious viewpoints on sensitive issues, without fear of reprisal and censorship,” Hoffmann said.
