by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – An annual report by the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC) shows there were “2,444 anti-Christian hate crimes” across 35 European countries in 2023, Christianity Today (CT) reports.
Published in November, the OIDAC annual report shows that the most affected countries were France (1,000 incidents), the United Kingdom (over 700 incidents), and Germany (277 incidents), CT reports.
“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,” Anja Hoffmann, executive director of OIDAC Europe, said in a press release.
Noting that hostility toward Christians in Europe does not generate the same kind of attention that the persecution of believers in other parts of the world does, Christof Sauer, senior consultant and former founding director for the International Institute for Religious Freedom, told CT: “It is particularly challenging to attract attention for discrimination against Christians in Europe, compared to the discrimination of minority groups such as Jews and Muslims.”
“Secularists might regard Christians in Europe as those in power, as ‘perpetrators’ of violence from a historical perspective, and might have a hard time acknowledging victimhood,” Sauer said. “There is an increasing degree of religious illiteracy in Europe, and understanding of the broad scope of religious freedom often is limited.”
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
There is mounting concern about the future of the NATO military alliance after U.S. President Donald J. Trump announced plans to withdraw thousands of troops from Germany, as transatlantic tensions deepen over the Middle East war.
The U.S. economy showed renewed strength in the first quarter of 2026, rebounding to a 2 percent growth rate after a sluggish end to 2025, according to new data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis on April 30.
President Donald Trump has granted a key federal approval for a major new oil pipeline from Canada into the United States, a project already being dubbed “Keystone Light” for its resemblance to the previously canceled Keystone XL.
Israel is moving decisively to strengthen its air dominance in the Middle East, approving the purchase of two additional squadrons of advanced fighter jets from the United States following lessons learned during the recent war with Iran.
President Donald Trump announced Sunday that the United States will begin guiding commercial ships out of the Strait of Hormuz, where global shipping has been effectively trapped amid the ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Iran.
The Middle East is rapidly moving toward what many officials believe could be the second phase of the ongoing Iran war, with new military deployments, massive arms transfers, and rising tensions pointing to renewed conflict within days.
Despite the devastation and uncertainty brought by the ongoing conflict in Iran, a remarkable spiritual movement is quietly accelerating beneath the surface. Christian leaders report that the nation’s underground Church is not only enduring—but growing stronger—amid the chaos.