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 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
The Israel Defense Forces said Saturday that a targeted airstrike in Gaza City killed senior Hamas commander Raad Saad, one of the terror group’s most influential remaining military leaders, in what Israeli officials described as a direct response to repeated ceasefire violations by Hamas.
President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a sweeping executive order aimed at preventing states from regulating artificial intelligence, asserting that a fragmented regulatory landscape threatens U.S. innovation and global competitiveness—particularly against China.
A federal appeals court delivered a major victory to the Trump administration and the pro-life movement on Friday, ruling that Planned Parenthood is unlikely to succeed in its legal challenge against a key provision of President Donald Trump’s signature domestic-policy law that cuts off federal Medicaid funding to abortion providers.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 8 declined to hear the case of a California Christian baker who was prosecuted for refusing, on religious grounds, to create a custom wedding cake celebrating a same-sex marriage. The unsigned order in Miller v. Civil Rights Department came without comment or recorded dissent, leaving in place a California ruling against the baker.
Australian authorities said at least 12 people, including one suspected gunman, were killed and dozens wounded in a shooting attack linked to a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach, an incident condemned by leaders in Australia, Britain, and Israel as antisemitic terrorism.
Students, staff and anxious parents faced an uncertain Sunday and several leaders urged prayers after a shooter killed at least two people and wounded nine others at Brown University in the U.S. state of Rhode Island.
German authorities have detained five men in southern Germany over an alleged plot to carry out a “possibly Islamist-motivated attack” on a Christmas market, officials confirmed late Friday.