Call for evidence on hate crimes around places of worship

13 May 2020

The Home Office currently has a consultation open calling for evidence on hate crimes in or around places of worship in England and Wales. If you are aware of any hate crimes that have happened within the last five years in or around places of worship that you know, or if you have ever felt unsafe in a place of worship in the last five years, please contact us to let us know. We want to collate as much evidence as possible to make a comprehensive response on behalf of our supporters to the Home Office.

A ‘hate crime’ is defined as any crime that is perceived by the victim or any other person as motivated by hostility towards a characteristic such as religion or perceived religion. This means that any crime intentionally targeting a church or church members would be classed as a ‘hate crime’.

Examples of hate crimes in and around places of worship:

  • someone physically attacks or tries to attack a church leader or anybody who is in the church, and there is evidence that this is motivated by hatred of them for being a Christian, doing Christian work or being involved in any kind of Christian witness, e.g. through saying or shouting offensive anti-Christian words
  • a church has been broken into and pages have been torn from Bibles or other Christian books
  • anti-Christian graffiti found on the building or walls surrounding the church
  • the altar, baptistery or other sacramental architectural features of a church building have been desecrated
  • church windows have been broken
  • church building or part of it has been set on fire.

Please use this link to write to us with any evidence you have.

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