They are not yet among the 50 nations where the advocacy group Open Doors says Christians face the most persecution. Yet devoted Christians are increasingly under pressure in several Western countries, according to a Worthy News investigation.
The situation is most serious in Europe and related territories as hundreds of churches were burned down, vandalized, or graffitied in France and other Western European nations in recent years, including in 2024.
Several reports verified by Worthy News suggest that massive migration from mainly Islamic nations added to extremism toward devoted Christians in Europe.
In France alone in 2020, there were 613 cases of hate crimes against Christianity, said Virginie Joron, a French legislator in the European Parliament, citing police data.
Worthy News obtained written questions from the European Union’s executive, the European Commission, in which Joron wondered why the Commission appears reluctant to tackle anti-Christian attacks.
“In December 2015, the Commission established a European coordinator to combat anti-Muslim hatred in Europe and a coordinator to combat anti-Semitism and foster Jewish life. The Commission has not, however, appointed a coordinator to combat anti-Christian hatred,” she noticed.
“Europe means peace. The dozens of church fires in France, conflagrations in the Cathedrals of Paris and Nantes, the beheading of women in Nice, priests’ throats cut by two Islamists, and a Rwandan applicant for refugee status who arrived illegally in 2012 and was not expelled tell a different story,” Joron wrote.
“In 2020, there were 613 attacks on Christians, 80 on Muslims, and 38 on Jewish places of worship. In view of the threats, there were armed police protecting Christmas celebrations in France. Yet neither the Commission nor the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights mentions anti-Christian crimes,” the legislator complained.
She wanted to know, “Why has the Commission not appointed a European coordinator to combat anti-Christian crimes, even though it has done so for other religions? After the controversy over the abolition of Christmas by Brussels, will the Commission finally include the fight against anti-Christian crimes in its missions and reports?”
Vice-President Věra Jourová said in separate remarks seen by Worthy News that “the Commission is committed to protect Christians and members of other religious groups from persecution within the EU and does not make any distinction between religious groups.”
However, she added that the “Commission has no plans as no plans as regards a specific strategy on Christophobia or to appoint a dedicated coordinator on this issue.”
That worries Jean-Paul Garraud, a French politician who has been serving as a member of the European Parliament since 2019. “At a time when Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world and a 70 percent surge in anti-Christian hate crimes between 2019 and 2020 in Europe, can the Commission explain why it does not intend to introduce a strategy or appoint a coordinator to combat christophobia?”
Critics link the reluctance to the growing influence of Muslim hardliners among millions of migrants from Islamic countries in Europe. Additionally, younger Muslims born in Europe were often educated according to strict Islamic traditions, say concerned experts.
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