Vienna, December 23, 2021
Photo: intoleranceagainstchristians.eu
Anti-Christian hate crimes in Europe increased by 70% between 2019 and 2020, according to a new report from the Vienna-based Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe.
According to the report, the freedoms of Christians were most infringed upon in France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and the UK in 2019-2020.
There are more hate crimes in France and Germany, “although they tend to be more severe in Spain and France, due to a reactionary form of secularism.”
In addition to secular intolerance, the Observatory also pinpoints Islamic oppression as a major threat to the lives of Christians.
“While secular intolerance is the driving dynamic in most of the cases and areas of life we observed, Islamic oppression mainly occurs in concentrated hotspot areas, in which Christian converts are the group that is mostly affected along with other residential Christians,” the Observatory reports in its key findings.
Unfortunately, the danger that Muslim converts to Christianity face is often ignored by state authorities, the Observatory reports.
Christians are most affected in the areas of church life, education, politics, the workplace, and freedom of speech. The UK has an especially high number of cases of legal prosecution for alleged “hate speech,” the report states.
The right to conscientious objection is also being threatened in Sweden, France, and Spain, the Observatory found, and new regulations on sex and relationship education are violating parental rights in Europe.
The report also notes that there is a “high rate of religious illiteracy among state authorities, public officials and journalists,” and that the media is largely responsible for stigmatizing and marginalizing conservative Christian voices.
The report also highlights that churches were “repeatedly discriminated against and religious freedom denied” during the COVID pandemic.
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