Europe in 2015 saw a rise in
social hostilities involving religion, particularly against the continent’s
Muslims, according to a new Pew Research Center study on global religious restrictions.
Muslims faced social hostilities in seven-in-ten (71%) countries in Europe, an
increase from 58% the year before.
Along with sub-Saharan Africa,
Europe experienced the sharpest year-over-year increase in social hostilities
targeting Muslims, with both regions registering increases of 13 percentage
points. But the share of sub-Saharan African countries with hostilities toward
Muslims was the second lowest (38%) of five regions evaluated, while Europe had
the largest share of any region.
Social hostilities toward Jews,
meanwhile, remained at high levels in Europe: In 2015, 33 of the continent’s 45
countries (73%) had incidents of social hostilities aimed at Jews, a slight
increase from 32 countries (71%) the previous year.
Social
hostilities are defined as actions aimed at members of religious groups by
private individuals and social groups. These actions can include hostile
rhetoric, vandalism and physical assaults. They differ from government
restrictions on religion, which also increased in Europe
in 2015.
Some social hostilities against Muslims followed the Jan. 7,
2015, shooting at the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo
and the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks at the Bataclan concert hall and various
other locations throughout Paris. For instance, Muslim places of worship in the
cities of Le Mans and Narbonne were attacked by grenades and gunshots the day
after the Charlie Hebdo shooting.
France’s Interior Ministry
reported that anti-Muslim incidents more than tripled in 2015, including cases
of hate speech, vandalism and violence against individuals.
In
Slovakia, far-right political groups organized protests against the “Islamization of Europe
and Slovakia,” drawing an estimated 3,000-5,000 people in the capital,
Bratislava, in June. Similar sentiments were echoed in Poland in November, when
participants in the Independence Day marches held banners saying “Poland for the Polish” and
“Stop Islamization.”
Prominent
anti-Jewish hostilities also occurred. In Russia in April, individuals fired at a synagogue that was under
construction, breaking the windows and writing antisemitic graffiti. And in
Italy, 25 members of the neo-Nazi movement Stormfront were ordered to stand trial in July for alleged antisemitic hate
speech. In a separate incident in Italy in October, antisemitic
graffiti was placed on a University of Teramo wall during the visit of the
Israeli ambassador, who was there to launch a course on the Holocaust.
Meanwhile,
in the United Kingdom, the Community Security Trust reported 86 violent antisemitic assaults. And
in February 2015, a young Jewish man wearing a yarmulke was assaulted by two men in Belgium. The next month,
attackers in Ukraine severely beat a Jewish surgeon, allegedly while
shouting antisemitic rhetoric.
