Watchdog group The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe (OIDAC) released a report detailing the attacks on Christians across Europe and the United Kingdom last year.
According to the report, a total of 2,211 anti-Christian hate crimes were recorded by governments and organizations across Europe. “The most affected countries in 2024 were France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Spain,” the report notes. Other countries, such as Poland and Spain, have “significant underreporting of aggression against clergy.”
Discussing the underreporting of anti-Christian incidents, the report noted that surveys indicated that as many as 50% of Catholic priests reported experiencing aggression, although more than 80% of did not report the incident to the authorities. “If extrapolated nationwide, this would suggest that as many as 14,000 priests may have experienced aggression in Poland alone within the last 12 months, underscoring the scale of the issue and the limitations of relying solely on police-reported data,” the report explains.
Breaking down the most affected countries for 2024 anti-Christian events, France was listed as having 770 reported events, the United Kingdom had 502, Germany had 337, and Austria had 116.
While France had a “modest decrease in anti-Christian hate crimes” between 2023 and 2024, the organization said, the country “continues to record the highest number of such incidents in Europe.” Meanwhile, Germany has seen an increase in vandalism, and Spain has reported a rise in both physical attacks and vandalism.
OIDAC Europe found that the most frequent violent incident against Christians was “vandalism (50%), followed by arson attacks (15%), acts of desecration (13%), physical assaults (7.5%), theft of religious objects (5.5%), and threats (4%).” The organization also recorded 12 terror-related incidents, although many were prevented by national security forces. Although limited information is available as to the motives behind the incidents, common links include “radical Islamist ideology (35), radical left-wing ideology (19), radical right-wing ideology (7), and other political motives (11).” Other incidents involved satanic symbols.
The report further detailed numerous legal restrictions against Christians, such as Christians being criminally charged for sharing Bible verses, bans on public prayer, implementing abortion “buffer zones,” and prosecutions against those discussing sexual morality.
A previous report by OIDAC Europe identified 2,444 anti-Christian hate crimes documented across 35 European countries throughout 2023. Of the crimes reported, 232 were personal attacks against Christians.
