1/23/2025 Europe (International Christian Concern) — There are quite a few people — including some Christians themselves — who seem to think it’s unsuitable to talk about anti-Christian hate crimes in the West when believers are being slaughtered in Nigeria, disappearing in North Korea, or living under constant fear and contempt in Pakistan.
Though Paris is indeed no Pyongyang, people should be able to discuss the existence of anti-Christian sentiment regardless of where it exists. And it so happens that Europe is seeing a rising number of hate crimes directed against Christianity, according to a recent report from the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe (OIDAC).
“For all of my life living in the U.K., I grew up with open discussion and free speech,” said Paul James-Griffiths, director of Christian Heritage Edinburgh. “From about 2013, things began to change. Before then, people could generally express different opinions in a free society.”
James-Griffiths added that, for the last decade-plus, “The currents against Christianity and traditional family values, as well as against our democratic culture, have gone from being a stream to being a river.”
Behind the changing currents, he sees two main sources: radical Muslims and people with far-left politics. “Both groups seem to use each other to advance their cause,” he said, adding that the far-left “champions diversity, except for Christianity and traditional values based on this faith.” Meanwhile, radical Muslims “laugh behind the backs” of the far left, while they use “diversity” ideals “to gain power in Europe.”
An example of this growing political power surfaced in December 2023 with the formation of The Muslim Vote (U.K.), which seeks to exert pressure on politicians.
James-Griffiths fears that the U.K. might eventually see the prohibition of “open discussion and critique of Islam, Muhammad, and the Quran.”
For European Christianity, it can be difficult to determine whether the larger threat comes from adherents to an anti-Christian belief system, or from the many Europeans with a godless hatred — homegrown in the West and now in full bloom.
“Both forms of persecution are growing in the U.K.,” James-Griffiths said. “My wife is German, and she says that their culture is trying to hold on to the Christian way of doing things more strongly than we are doing [in the U.K.]. However, this is now rapidly changing.”
One of the most striking statistics in the recent OIDAC report involves Germany, where hate crimes against Christians reportedly doubled from 2022 to 2023.
Along with this sharp rise is the reality that “Many anti-Christian hate crimes do not make it into official statistics,” said Anja Hoffmann, executive director of the OIDAC in Europe.
Additionally, many European countries do not keep statistics regarding anti-Christian incidents.
“We are increasingly concerned about the overall situation in Europe,” Hoffmann said. “In particular, restrictions on religious freedom and discrimination against Christians … leading to growing self-censorship among Christians.
“More and more young Christians have become very cautious about whether and when to talk about their faith in public.”
On a similar note, James-Griffiths remarked that, “Increasingly, we are seeing people being persecuted and losing their jobs for their stand for traditional Christian values.”
This type of discrimination, as Hoffmann pointed out, tends to come from “radical secularist views that lead to intolerance of religious beliefs or worldviews.” However, anti-Christian hate crimes can have a variety of motives. These include radical Muslim hostility, along with motives from persons with far-left or far-right politics.
“Some perpetrators simply have a personal hatred of Christianity or religion in general, which is directed against church buildings,” Hoffmann said.
Most cases recorded by OIDAC involve perpetrators and motives that remain unknown. And even among attacks with an established radical Islamist motive, the perpetrators are often European natives, not migrants.
Though attacks in Europe by migrant perpetrators are indeed noteworthy, much of the continent’s underlying anti-Christian hostility comes from the Europeans themselves, a considerable number of whom occupy positions of influence. As a result, Christians can feel compelled to hide their beliefs and views in the workplace and at a university.
“In order to counter this trend and safeguard religious freedom, including the freedom to express religious views in public, we need to raise awareness of legislation and social trends that have a negative impact on religious freedom,” Hoffmann said.
Though Christians in Europe encounter far less physical danger than believers in many other parts of the world, the continent is still witnessing an increase in incidents of anti-Christian hostility, and this hostility can come from multiple sources.
“I hope and pray for a Christian revival and reformation again in Europe as more and more people see what is going on,” James-Griffiths said. “However, the trend appears to be heading towards anti-Jewish and anti-Christian movements.”
To read more news stories, visit the ICC Newsroom. For interviews, please email [email protected].
