From March 22nd to March 25th, vandals repeatedly destroyed windows of the Cathedral of Sarajevo.
Vandals broke in the church of Banja Luka, destroyed stained glass windows, and stole holy objects.
Vandals broke in the cathedral of Sarajevo and stole the chalices and other liturgical appointments.
St Mary’s Church in Heworth has been once more targeted by thieves and vandals.
The Christian Party office was vandalized days after the party launched a bus advertising campaign with the slogan, “There definitely is a God. So join the Christian party and enjoy your life.” The ad was a response to widespread atheist ads which carried the slogan, “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” The Metropolitan Police investigated the vandalism as a ‘religious hate crime’.
The pastor of Zion Baptist Church in Rochdale was attacked by a gang of up to 20 youths. Pastor Dennis Rigg and his brother were making preparations in the church building for their father’s funeral when the group attacked the pastor and shouted out abuse relating to their Christian faith.
Intolerance and discrimination manifests itself also as social exclusion and marginalisation of Christians. Stereotyping by biased media coverage is a familiar tool of furthering marginalisation. The following excursus to the New York Times of Feb. 26th, 09, is just one example.
Between 15 and 24 February 2009 two churches in the Oxford area were broken into and highly symbolic religious items were desecrated. Local police officers thought the two incidents were linked and were possibly religiously motivated attacks to make a point against the Church of England. In both incidents safes containing communion bread at the churches were forced open, but nothing was stolen in either case. It is estimated that there was £3,000 worth of damage at St James the Great, in West Hanney, and in St Nicholas Church, in East Challow.
Burning of Bibles reported in Israel; mockery of Christians on TV; Catholic bishops speak of a "low profile" form of Christ[ian]ophobia.
67% of French Catholic parents say that public schools do not respect the freedom of conscience of their children.
For the third time in less than a year, the cemetery of Saint-Laurent-des-Autels was vandalized on Sunday, February 14th, 2009. This time, tags were found on graves and on the door of the church. In the cemetery, one could see swastikas on trees.
A five-year-old girl was reprimanded for talking about her faith at school and her mother, Jennie Cain, who worked part-time at her daughter’s school, was investigated for professional misconduct and faced disciplinary action. The school has settled out of court.
On the 7th and 12th of February 2009, two youths vandalized the Soz Kitapevi bookshop of the Turkish Bible Society in the city of Adana. The aggressors are suspected to be Muslim militants.
BBC repeats the screening of a drama depicting pro life campaigners as murderous terrorists.
A Christian foster carer has been struck off because she allowed a Muslim child in her care to convert to Christianity.
The film producing company Link TV placed a video online which mocks Catholicism. The short silent video shows a weird priest descreting the Eucharist, a most sacred item for Catholics.
A nurse was suspended from work without pay for having asked a patient whether she wanted prayer. The nurse has been reinstated after public protests.
A homelessness prevention officer with Wandsworth Council has been suspended from work for nearly two months for encouraging a homeless woman with an incurable medical condition to look to God for help.
The tabernacle was forced opened, the chalice was stolen and some of the hosts were thrown to the ground. The parish priests Florent Babaka and Philippe Besnard reported the incident to the police.
The justice department allowed the display of a crucified figure of Christ adorned with a papal tiara, as part of a contemporary art exhibit in Bologna.
About 30 graves were damaged, crossse were broken or thrown to the ground. In the chapel next to the cemetery, stain-glass windows were broken and the door was damaged.
A man forcibly tried to take of a nun’s veil in Sarajevo on January 21st, 2009.
Muslim Radio sacks Christian presenter after six years of cooperation.
The Dutch goverment ceases its annual 50.000 Euro grant to the Christan Foundation "Onze Weg". The reason is that the foundation teaches that homosexuality can be healed.
Brighton Council requests care home for elderly Christians to ask its residents about their sexual orientation and cuts funding when rejected.
A Catholic Church in San Francisco was vandalized by gays as a response to a public vote on gay marriage
Christian teacher suspended pending a disciplinary investigation after disagreeing with and complaining about the way a staff training session promoted homosexuality.
Several cases are reported on profanations of cemeteries as well as desecrations of churches and Christian holy objects in France.
The Bulgarian government confiscated church properties with police force and violence. European Court of Human Rights rules in favor of Alternative Synod of Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
A mandatory school text book on the History of Turkish Republican Reforms and Atatürkism for 13-year-old students encourages religious discrimination in Turkey. The book explains missionary activity “as a threat to national unity," annihilating national and cultural values through converting people to another religion.
According to the French Internal Affairs Department 266 acts of vandalism targeted Christian sites in 2008. Please find a list of examples here.
The governmental agency ‘Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung’ (Federal Central Unit of Political Education) defames evangelicals as hostile to constitution.
A Church of Scotland minister was attacked by a gang of youths on Christmas Day. Reverend Gordon MacKenzie was taking a walk when he was jumped on from behind by a trio of youths he had just passed. He was knocked to the ground by blows about the head and body, then kicked and punched as he was lying on the floor. Revd MacKenzie required hospital treatment for a broken nose, a broken tooth and various injuries to the hand, face and body.
References to Christmas were banned in Oxford and Christmas festivities renamed "Winter Light celebrations" to be "more inclusive. Protests come from Christians, Muslims, and Jews.
Offenders set fire to a church; the third one in two months. The sacristy of the church St. Bernard was completely burned out.
Aramaic Lawyer David Gelen reveals in an interview with German daily, "Die Welt," the pressures Turkish authorities have placed on the Christian Aramaic minorities.
A Greek-Melkite parish was set on fire the night of Friday 12 December. Pastor could quickly contain and limit the damage.
Several reports prove fear of Muslim converts to Christianity in Europe.
The European Public Laity Association (Asociación Estatal Europa Laica) has requested a court order to remove crucifixes and religious symbols from Macías Picavea school in Valladolid. The Administrative Tribunal 2 of Valladolid agreed with the plaintiffs, and issued an order to take away every religious symbol from classrooms and common-use rooms. The Tribunal said that religious symbols violated the fundamental rights of equality and freedom of conscience as enshrined in articles 14 and 16.1 of the Spanish Constitution. The Tribunal has not made any mention to the fact that religious symbols placed outside a church also have a civil, historic, and cultural value.
A band of about 30 gays stormed a church in Lansing, Michigan. shouting “Jesus was a homo”, etc. The church was vandalized, obscenities were shouted and worshippers were confronted.
Saint Maravillas de Jesus was born in a house which is now the local Spanish parliament of Valladoid. A plaque with a commemorative inscription was declined on behalf of left wing parties.
Two Jesuit priests were murdered brutally in Moscow. Jesuit Fathers Otto Messmer, 47, and Victor Betancourt, 42, were found dead late Oct. 28 in their Moscow apartment.
Francisco Javier Romero, a religion professor in Sevilla on sick leave because of cancer treatment, claimed discrimination with regard to finding a substitute teacher by a more difficult procedure. When he asked why he was given a different treatment respect to other professors on sick leave, he was told "because you are a Catholic Religion teacher".
(2008/2009) Sweden curbs the influence of religion in private confessional schools in a move to "prevent the spread of fundamentalism". Law entered into force in the beginning of 2009.
Several videos have been put online showing the Eucharistic Host, most sacred for Catholics, being desecrated by being stepped on, burned, stapled, smoked and nailed to a stick. After severe protests, YouTube removed the videos on Oct 2nd.
People with pro life convictions from all over Germany met on September 20th for a manifestation in Berlin. Their silent manifestation was interrupted by about 50 demonstrators throwing confetti unto them and chanting slogans such as: “If Mary had had an abortion, we would have been spared you guys!”, and “Communism instead of Jesus Christ”. During a religious service, two women denuded themselves and showed on the upper parts of their bodies a reversed cross.
Soldiers arrested a priest and more than 20 Christians in a Turkish Province during prayer. The Christian community wanted to hold a religious service in this region. When the Christians started to distribute sweets to the children and Bibles to the adults the security forces intervened and arrested them.
Rev Graham P Taylor, author of the best-seller Shadowmancer, sometimes called the new C. S. Lewis, said the BBC does not welcome him anymore because he could be seen as promoting Christianity. Taylor, a parish priest who signed a £3.5 million contract to publish Shadowmancer claims that the relationship with the BBC went well "until they realised that there were religious allegories in my stories".
Posters were placed illegally all over the city of Salzburg calling for violence against people praying in front of an abortion clinic. The posters displayed a panda kicking Andreas Laun, the auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Salzburg. In bold letters the posters stated: “Kick opponents of abortion (off the sidewalk)”.
The government of Austria reinforces guidelines for sexual education that jeopardize the teaching of authentic Christian sexual values. The guidelines extend to classes of religious education.