The advent season is used by Belgian anti-religious politicians to propose ban of religious symbols on objects serving a public function and a ban on religious traditions of public life.
A Christian hotelier couple who expressed their Christian beliefs to Muslim guest during a discussion of religion were subsequently arrested for disrupting public order. Charges were later dismissed.
Homosexual students disrupted a lecture of Protestant philosopher Prof. Edith Düsing at Cologne University. The students made noise and used kissing and banners due to her support of a manifesto in May 2009 protesting the cancellation of an academic lecture at a psychology congress on grounds of the speakers’ research on healing homosexuality.
The International Social Survey Program - a 45-nation academic group - finds that nearly 40 percent of population has negative view of Christians. 49 percent of those surveyed said they would either "absolutely" or "most likely" not support a political party that accepted people from another religion. No non-Muslim religious gathering in Turkey is completely "risk free."
A couple from northern Hessen (Germany) had to pay a fine to the extent of 120 € for taking their children out of school for religious reasons. The district Court of Kassel charged the 48-year-old man and his 43-year-old wife with 60 daily rates of 1€ in an appellate decision. In the previous contested judgment of June 2008 they were supposed to go to jail for three months, even though the attorney admitted that the children are well educated.
New FBI statistics on hate crimes show a nine percent increase in crimes against religious groups in 2008 and an almost 25 percent increase in reported hate crimes against Catholics.
EU-equal opportunities-commissioner Vladimir Spidla has said that absolutely no exemptions can be allowed in anti-discrimination laws, even for religious conscience. In a letter to the British government, the EU has demanded that Britain abolish laws protecting religious freedom rights with regards to "sexual orientation."
United Left (IU) and Initiative for a Green Catalonia (ICV) proposed an amendment to the National Spanish Budget to deprive the Catholic Church of state funding, remove the tax deduction of volunteer contributions of citizens, and end the benefits on value-added-tax and property tax.
The Women’s Telephone Association of Milan launched an awareness campaign on violence against women featuring a semi-nude woman in the position of the crucifixion, with the slogan: “Who pays for the sins of men?”
Chapel set on fire in the night from November 15th to 16th in Over (Hamburg). Damage caused is estimated over 100,000 Euros.
Scotland town eliminated all references to Christmas, an address by a Christian minister, and the traditional nativity from its annual holiday celebration.
Police investigating the brutal assault of two teenage boys in Canterbury in November who say they may have been attacked because they were delivering Christian leaflets.
Scottish gay/transsexual festival "Glasgay!" featured the play "Jesus, Queen of Heaven" in which Jesus is a transsexual woman. Taxpayer money involved. Christian protestors named "homophobic".
Christian woman of Norwich complained about a gay pride march in letter to police upon which she was investigated on hate crime.
Judge Fernando Calamita sentenced to 10 years of occupational ban and fined for delaying the adoption of a little girl by the lesbian partner of her mother as a form of conscientious objection.
Aleksejs Ribakovs, Orthodox Priest, was beaten and forced to move to another city to protect his family. One of the suspects was caught and identified as a young Muslim who proclaimed to hate Christians.
A Somerset Parish Council ended a 115-year tradition of saying Christian prayers at the beginning of its meeting after receiving a complaint.
A church in London has seen congregation numbers dwindle from 100 to 30 since the local council subjected it to noise restrictions following a complaint from a Muslim neighbour.
A large percentage of Turkish residents report that Christians are unwelcome in both the public and private sectors.
Professor Luigi Lombardi Vallauri's teaching contract was not prolonged by the Catholic University of Milano after he taught things like the gospel was the “most frightening message ever made known to mankind” and that “Jesus was through and through a bad human being”. On October 20th, the Court ruled that this was a violation of his freedom of opinion.
Catholics were stoned while participating to a Mass at the cemetery chapel of Donji Vajuf.
Unknown perpetrators placed several pornographic images in the hymnal books of two Tyrolean Churches, and glued various Jewish and Nazi symbols on the front cover.
The church of Notre-Dame d’Espérance in Siant-Brieux (Côtes d’Armor) was targeted by vandals on Saturday, October 3rd, 2009. Chairs were broken and thrown to the ground, trash was spread in the church and stain glass windows were broken by throwing stones and chairs at them.
Large white crosses carried by pro life manifestations through the city of Berlin. Several of the crosses were stolen by members of left wing associations and were thrown into a nearby river.
About 15 graves were vandalized in the cemetery of Cré near Châteauroux (Indre). Headstones were tipped or broken and funeral ornaments were wrecked.
Vandals broke or extracted numerous white crosses of the military cemetery of Nompatelize (Vosges). The Maire of Nompatelize, Didier Barret, furious, says: “What distinguishes men from animals is the respect for the dead. Those who did this are stupid, I don’t even know if they were aware of their actions. I wish they will once know the price of the blood shed for their peace and freedom.”
Large-scale vandalism of a Christian cemetery recalls decades of suffering by Orthodox Christians in Turkey.
A group of Catholic nuns were openly insulted in Tuzla on August 21st, 2009.
On Thursday, September 17th, 2009, in the evening, a man entered the church of Saint-Hilaire to vandalize the statue of the Virgin Mary. The statue fell on the ground and broke into pieces.
On September 11th, 12th and 13th was set in the French town of Angers the 11th annual Festival of the Accroche-Coeur. Its theme was “Angels and Demons”, a theme which led to half-naked angels and demons parades, erotic shows and short plays imitating and fooling a Catholic Mass. The Christian Democratic Party said he was “deeply shocked” by the erotic displays; the mayor himself, Jean-Claude Antonini left the show without giving his final speech.
Anti-Christian slogans such as “There is no God” and “If Mary had had an abortion, we would have been spared from you!” shouted at anti-life demo in Vienna.
A Christian church in South Wales was targeted by vandals who smashed its newly restored stained glass windows. Worshippers were forced to cancel services in order to fix damages.
70 graves were wrecked in the cemetery of Coudekerque-Branche. Memorial plaques, funeral ornaments and urns were found broken into pieces and laying on the ground. Rocks were also thrown on numerous graves, thus damaging them. David Bailleul, the mayor of Coudekerque-Branche, condems these “obnoxious, unacceptable and scandalous acts”.
A charity in Scotland decided to drop the word ‘church’ from its title, saying that it creates “unnecessary barriers” to accessing public funding. The chairman of Perth-based Churches Action for the Homeless (CATH) said he had been told “off the record” that their perceived religious identity made it more difficult for them to receive grants. Trustees asked the charity’s supporters to suggest a new “fully inclusive” name for the group.
In July and in August 2009, the church of Juniville was targeted several times by vandals who broke stained glass windows by throwing rocks at them. The costs of the fixing was estimated at about 10 000€.
The Xth century church of Communay was targeted by vandals during the night of August, 24th, 2009. Two crosses were unhooked and thrown to the ground. Candals and singing books were found all over the church and flower pots were thrown against a stain-glass window.
The church of the Sacred-Heart of Maubeuge was the target of degradations. A parishioner put an and to the damage when he entered the church at approximately 6:30 p.m., thus putting to flight three young men. The three had left a devotional note to Allah.
Christians treated as second class teachers; pupils taught that “Christianity would be abolished in the end, all other religions would disappear and everybody will convert to Islam” at school in Amsterdam, and that “only Muslims can after all be good people.”
Harrassed Christian family sends report to the observatory
Freedom of speech is being challenged in the case of Miguel Hayworth, a Christian street preacher in Manchester, UK who was silenced by police after publicly reading a passage from the Bible discussing homosexuality.
Obscene and offensive messages have been scrawled over a Bible at a taxpayer-funded exhibition in Glasgow.
Residents of Milnrow, Lancashire, were surprised to see council workers installing Christmas lights in August 2009, 127 days before Christmas Day. Rochdale Borough Council said the lights would be used to celebrate a number of festivals, starting with the Muslim feast of Eid in September. Other ‘holy days’ over the period between August and Christmas include Hindu Diwali celebrations in October, the Jewish feast of Hanukkah in December and even Yule, the pagan celebration of the winter solstice. The Council’s decision attracted derision from the national press and Milnrow residents. One local labelled the move “ludicrous” and said: “A worker told me they had to be up in time for all the religious festivals, but most of the lights refer to the Christian Christmas.”
Pop-singer Madonna performed on August 15, the main Marian feast day of Polish Catholics, in Warsaw with for Christians offensive lyrics and images. Ads included sentences such as “There is no room for two queens in that country.”
Experienced community paediatrician dismissed from adoption panel over Christian views has been reinstated upon public outcry.
Around twenty churches were vandalized on the night of July 26th in commemoration of the centenary of the „Tragic Week“ (a series of blood sheding fights between the Spanish army and the working classes) in Barcelona.
German entrepreneur murdered in Istanbul most likely because of hatred towards Christians. CNN-Turk and Agence France Press quote the murderer to have stated in an interrogation that he had aimed at "killing Christians".
The church of the Sacred-Heart of Toulon has been for the past two years the target of malevolent acts. Urine was found in the baptismal font, a church responsible was seriously assaulted, the tabernacle was vandalized and many thefts and degradation are to be deplored. The church had to be kept closed for several weeks in 2009.
Father Noël became a victim of intimidation and threats in Toul over the course of a year. He finally decided to leave the district of la Croix de Metz in Toul.
A new Irish initiative that would grant rights to homosexual couples contains no conscience clause and lays out fines and potential prison sentences for registrars who refuse to carry out same-sex civil partnerships. Concerns from church leaders disregarded as Bill passes Second Stage consideration.
Seven-year-old taken away from his family by Swedish authorities at Arlanda International Airport in Stockholm, for being home educated, although home education was legal in Sweden at that time.