‘Anti-Christian hate crimes’ in Europe up 44% in past year, watchdog group says

In its release on Thursday, OIDAC Europe said “arson attacks on churches” increased by 75% between 2021 and 2022. The report also revealed “legal discrimination against Christians who expressed traditional Christian worldviews.”

The top five countries for anti-Christian hate crimes, the report said, were Germany, Italy, France, Spain, and Poland. The United Kingdom and Austria were also near the top of the list.

Overall, “in 2022, OIDAC Europe documented 748 anti-Christian hate crimes in 30 different countries, which ranged from arson attacks, graffiti, desecrations, and thefts to physical attacks, insults, and threats,” the release said.

The group noted that those numbers align closely with those reported by the intergovernmental Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The OSCE “found 792 anti-Christian hate crimes in 34 European countries,” the group said, “making Christians the most targeted religious group after Jewish believers.”

The report also examines instances of Christians who reportedly “lost their jobs, faced suspension, or criminal court cases for expressing nonviolent religious views in public” as well as “violations of parental rights to educate children in accordance with one’s religious convictions.”

Notably, the release said that more hate crimes last year “were perpetrated by radicalized members of ideological, political, or religious groups that follow an anti-Christian narrative.”