As riots triggered by migrant attacks convulse the UK, the debate over immigration in Europe is reaching a fever pitch. The same question is asked, time and again: If nobody voted for this, why does it keep on happening? In the past two years, migrant violence has been recorded—and in some cases triggered violent public backlash—in Germany (a toddler and man stabbed to death by an Afghan); Belfast (a man stabbed in the street by a Sudanese refugee); France (a deadly stabbing by an Algerian in Mulhouse); as well as Poland, Sweden, and Spain, among others.
By contrast, the steep rise in anti-Christian hate crimes, meticulously tracked by the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe, has gone largely unreported. In May alone, OIDAC Europe reported 37 hate crimes targeting “Christian places of worship, religious symbols, religious spaces, Christian institutions, and Christian individuals,” including:
13 arson-related attacks (the highest in 2026 thus far)
10 cases of vandalism
3 cases of deliberate “desecration”
3 cases of physical violence
3 thefts of religious objects
3 cases of “vandalism and violence”
1 case of incitement
1 case of disruption of worship
Some of the incidents are deeply disturbing. A Polish nun was attacked both physically and verbally at a bus stop, with the cross around her neck torn off. The windows of the Holy Spirit Church in Hanau, Germany were shattered after attackers fired steel balls through the window while hundreds of worshippers were inside. Two Catholic students in Austria were attacked and badly injured by “alleged left-wing extremists” in Innsbruck.
OIDAC Europe also noted that a “Christian-run café in Leipzig had to close after its operators reported 26 attacks over a period of two and a half years, including repeated vandalism, graffiti attacks, damage caused by butyric acid, and other forms of harassment.” The attacks were perpetrated “by individuals associated with the far-left extremist scene.” In Greece, a historic church bell tower was damaged by an attack from an assailant wielding a shotgun. Several churches in Poland were also vandalized, some with satanic symbols (another grim trend).
