Man Arrested for Dismembering Figures of Jesus

Case information
Incident date
Country
Germany
Place
Balve
Categories
  • Social Hostility / Intolerance
Attack Against
  • Faith
Perpetrator / Motive Indicators
  • Private
Hate Crime & Violent Incidents
  • Desecration
  • Vandalism (all)
  • Vandalism of Public Christian Symbol
  • Intolerance towards Religious Symbols
Religious Freedom / Discrimination
  • Censorship or Removal of Public Christian Symbols
Place of Incident
  • Public Christian Symbol (outside place of worship)
Bias Indicators
  • Lack of Other Motive
  • Pattern or Frequency of Attacks
  • Significance of Property/Structure/Location to religious community
Reported to Police
  • Yes
Response of Local Authorities
  • Investigated
Symbolic image; not a photograph of the reported incident.Image credit: Edom Orellana on Flickr

A 30 year old man was arrest for multiple accounts of property damage around the Märkischer Kreis region on January 16th. The cases included the dismembering of Jesus figurines, stolen statues of the Virgin Mary and Jesus, and damage to wayside crosses. The police suspected it was not a religiously motivated attack but this does not excuse the fact that the objects that were destroyed in a sacrilegious manner, were sacred to Christians.

Sources