Last year, there was an explosion in the number of attacks on churches, Christian-run schools, hospitals and cemeteries worldwide. Europe is no exception.
According to Christian human rights organizations, around 350,000-400,000 people who believe in Jesus are in immediate danger to their lives in the world. Extremists who kill Christians are protected and even encouraged by the state and the legal system in several places, and the victims are blamed for professing their faith.
The overwhelming majority of aggressions take place in Islamic states, but the increase in the number of European cases is also worrying.
Anti-Christian terror is not random, but increasingly systematic and systemic (for example, in Afghanistan and Somalia), as evidenced by the steadily increasing number of cases in recent years. There are more and more acts of aggression that the authorities do not investigate, do not impose punishment, and in fact, the victim and his family are warned to remain silent.
Christian rights organizations cannot even estimate the number of unreported or covered-up cases. Last December, Pope Francis spoke about the persecution or political-legal discrimination of 360 million Christians.
The UN Security Council passed a resolution last year in favor of the protection of religious freedom and religious tolerance, but so far no specific measures are known to implement them.
Statistics show that Nigeria is one of the most dangerous places for Christians, as sharia is in force in the northern part of the country. In January, dozens of villages in Nigeria were attacked, during which around 200 Christians were killed. The streak continued between February 16 and 19, when terrorists killed 23 people in several villages. Six of them were burned alive.
In recent years, Pakistan has also become an increasingly dangerous place for Christians.
On February 5, six Muslim gunmen opened fire on a group of Christians in a market. Their victim was a 14-year-old boy, Sunil Masih. The killers threatened the residents with further raids, then fled the scene, and none of them have been caught since. A female teacher was murdered by her colleagues because one of them made a blasphemous statement in a dream.
In Pakistan, however, the forced transfer of girls is followed by sex slavery.
The wave of terror has already reached the southern part of Africa: according to scientists and lawyers dealing with the persecution of Christians, most of the time, Muslim men are not even aware of the basic tenets of their own religion, but only Christians can read it as hatred of Iran.
According to a report published in mid-February, a quarter of the residents of the Darfur refugee camp are Christians, who are under the daily terror of the majority.
Converts from Islam to Christianity are a particularly vulnerable group.
Scary and warning cases are increasing in Europe and America as well. On Sunday, pro-Hamas demonstrators disrupted the festive peace of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.
In France, on February 2, a Muslim man desecrated the Church of St. John the Baptist in La Couronne, where he broke a cross and defaced a statue of St. John the Baptist with it. He explained his actions by saying that setting up statues was heresy, and he wanted to remedy this. The attacker was released by the French police shortly afterwards.
Similar vandalism occurred in mid-February, the perpetrator of which threatened to kill anyone who ventured near it. The person escaped from the hospital while undergoing forced medical treatment. In the Dordogne, four public crucifixes were defaced with references to Islam and spray-painted to say
France is "today a country of infidels, tomorrow a country of Islam."
In February, several other churches and statues were attacked and desecrated in France.
In the city of Hamm, Germany, a church was painted with the words "Allahu akbar". A number of other attacks, including arson, took place in the country throughout February. and desecration of churches.
In Italy, on February 26, the Madonna Church in Vasto was broken into and vandalized and looted. According to a report, the perpetrators also left human excrement on the floor of the church. The parish priest expressed his shock and disgust at the degrading gesture.
A similar attack on ancient Christian heritage sites took place in Azerbaijan, with a strong anti-Armenian political tailwind. According to a report on February 6, the Vankasar church fell victim to Azeri vandals who removed the signs of the cross. Christian rights defenders demand that the international community urge Azerbaijan to respect international conventions on the protection of cultural and religious sites.
Cover image: The wooden cross in Nagysénás - still intact, before unknown people set it on fire
Source: Tamás Nyáry/mozgasvilag.hu
