The findings come in a report by the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC Europe). It notes that in 2023, there were 2,444 anti-Christian hate crimes reported across 35 European countries. In England and Wales alone, 702 incidents were recorded between April 2023 and March 2024, representing a 15 per cent increase compared to the previous year.

A study highlighted in the report surveyed 1,562 respondents from different Christian denominations and age groups in the UK. It found that 56 per cent of respondents reported experiencing hostility and ridicule when discussing their religious beliefs, rising to 61 per cent among those under 35. Additionally, 18 per cent of respondents felt they had been disadvantaged in their workplace due to their Christian faith.

The report highlighted individual cases of discrimination, such as Kristie Higgs, 47, who was dismissed for gross misconduct by Farmor’s School in Fairford, Gloucestershire, after privately sharing a post expressing concerns about sex education lessons at her child’s primary school. Similarly, Maureen Martin was dismissed by her housing association employer for publicly stating her belief that marriage is a union between one man and one woman.

The UK has also recently seen Christians targeted for what amount to the first thought crimes being prosecuted in centuries, due to praying outside abortion clinics.

In the realm of politics, the report cited David Campanale, who was deselected by the Liberal Democrats as a candidate due to his Christian faith. It also mentioned Councillor Anthony Stevens, who was arrested in front of his children after sharing a petition on social media supporting freedom of speech for a fellow Christian councillor.

Germany and France were also highlighted as countries of particular concern for anti-Christian persecution. In Germany, there was a 105 per cent increase in politically motivated anti-Christian hate crimes in 2023 compared to 2022. Additionally, there were an estimated 2,000 cases of damage to Christian places of worship, including vandalism and arson.

France recorded nearly 1,000 anti-Christian hate crimes in 2023. The Ministry of Interior reported 84 personal attacks on Christians. In January 2023 alone, four churches in Paris were attacked using Molotov cocktails.

The report found that secular media in Europe tend to “under-report anti-Christian violence, omit specific Christian references and sometimes even spread distorted facts, negative stereotypes and defamation of Christians and Christian churches”.

It says that the “lack of outcry against defamation of Christians in the media indicates a certain public indifference to derogatory speech and misrepresentation against them”.

The report also expressed particular concern about vague or subjectively based Europe-wide “hate speech” laws and ambiguously formulated public order bills. According to the report, these measures often exceed their intended scope, disproportionately restricting public speech to avoid “distress” or “contempt”.

Such laws have created situations where Christians are criminalised for expressing non-violent religious teachings.

Related to this, some have highlighted inconsistency in UK government policy, which while rightly expressing concern about the rise in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents, does not show the same level of concern towards Christians.

In 2023, the UK government announced £28 million in funding for the Places of Worship Protective Security Funding Scheme, along with a new standalone scheme – the Protective Security for Mosques Scheme – similar to the Jewish Community Protective Security Grant. However, only £3.5 million was allocated to non-Muslim or non-Jewish faiths, despite growing concerns among Christian communities that their places of worship are increasingly under threat.

OIDAC Europe is a non-governmental organisation focused on classifying and providing objective, reliable and comparable data on intolerance and discrimination against Christians at the European level. It releases its annual report on the International Day of Tolerance that falls on 16 November.

UK among most hostile countries toward Christians in Europe, report finds

Photo: The order of service is pictured during a service of prayer and remembrance in honour of slain British lawmaker David Amess, at St Margaret’s Church, in central London, England, 18 October 2021. Police investigated a motivation for the attack ‘linked to Islamist extremism’. (© Jonathan Brady/Pool/AFP via Getty Images.)