{"id":512059,"date":"2025-01-06T21:19:37","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T19:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/?p=512059"},"modified":"2025-01-06T21:19:37","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T19:19:37","slug":"religious-sites-in-greece-face-rising-attacks-in-2023-report-reveals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/religious-sites-in-greece-face-rising-attacks-in-2023-report-reveals\/","title":{"rendered":"Religious sites in Greece face rising attacks in 2023, report reveals"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 2023 report<\/a> on incidents targeting religiously significant sites in Greece shows an increase in attacks compared to previous years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The report, published on the last day of 2024 by the General Secretariat for Religious Affairs under the Greek Ministry of Education, details cases involving not only places of worship but also other religious buildings and monuments, with Orthodox Christian sites being the most affected.<\/p>\n

Alarming Statistics<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A total of 608 incidents<\/strong> were recorded against religious sites, with 591 targeting Orthodox Christian sites<\/strong>\u2014accounting for 97.2%<\/strong> of all reported cases.<\/p>\n

This trend highlights a worrying rise in violence against the dominant religious community in Greece, Orthodox Times<\/strong><\/a> noted.<\/p>\n

Observations and Recommendations<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In the report\u2019s introduction, George Kalantzis, Secretary General for Religious Affairs, noted that the majority of these incidents were not religiously motivated,<\/strong> which he described as an \u201coptimistic and encouraging\u201d finding.<\/p>\n

Kalantzis emphasized the importance of cooperation between the state and religious communities to strengthen social cohesion, combat poverty, and support migrants and refugees.<\/p>\n

A Rising Trend Since 2017<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Statistics reveal that attacks on religious sites spiked significantly in 2017, then declined during the pandemic. However, cases rose again in 2022 to levels similar to 2018 and exceeded those levels in 2023 by several dozen cases.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Source: Greek Ministry of Education<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to the latest report<\/a> by the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe (OIDAC), hate-motivated incidents against Christians increased by 44% across Europe in 2023.<\/p>\n

Romania\u2019s Recognition of Religious Heritage<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Since 2020, Romania has observed a National Day of Commemoration for the Br\u00e2ncoveanu Martyrs<\/a> to honor Christian heritage and raise awareness of religious persecution.<\/p>\n

The rise in attacks underscores the need for vigilance and action to protect religious heritage and foster interfaith understanding in Europe.<\/p>\n

Photo: minedu.gov.gr<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 2023 report on incidents targeting religiously significant sites in Greece shows an increase in attacks compared to previous years. The report, published on the last day of 2024 by the General Secretariat for Religious Affairs under the Greek Ministry of Education, details cases involving not only places of worship but also other religious buildings…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":511672,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[21580,34107,5455,34112,34110,34108,34113,34111,34106,34109],"class_list":["post-512059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-christian-persecution","tag-greece-religious-violence","tag-greek-orthodox-church","tag-hate-crimes-in-europe","tag-intolerance-against-christians","tag-orthodox-christian-sites","tag-religious-discrimination","tag-religious-heritage-protection","tag-religious-site-attacks-2023","tag-religious-tolerance-in-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}