by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - Europe saw over 500 documented Anti-Christian Hate Crimes in 2021, the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians (OIDAC) says in its annual report available online. In addition to the incidents documented, OIDAC attests there is a “reasonable probability” of even higher numbers of incidents that were not reported on.
In a section of the report titled Key Findings, OIDAC said last year’s anti-Christian hate crimes took place across 19 European countries. France was found to have the highest number of crimes at 124, followed by Germany at 112, Italy at 82, Poland at 69, and the United Kingdom at 40.
OIDAC found that “hate speech” laws and public order legislation have been used to restrict freedom of speech, resulting in the arrests of preachers, especially in the UK.
Among a range of negative findings it lists in the report, OIDAC documented an “increasing phenomenon” of self-censorship among Christians responding to perceived hostility towards their beliefs. Such self-censorship was identified in the key areas of education, the workplace, the public sphere, private social interactions, and media.
In regard to online activity, Christian-led organizations were found to have been banned from major social platforms for “expressing dissenting beliefs, while insult and violent speech against Christians were permitted on the same platforms. “