There's been extremely widespread vandalism of French churches in the past year or so. Who are the culprits? Who'd be motivated to vandalize French churches?
I have no inside information. I'll just offer some conjectures. Perhaps the most obvious candidates are Muslim immigrants. And just in terms of statistical probabilities, it seems likely that Muslims account for many cases of vandalism.
Over and above that group, who else is motivated to do that? Another obvious candidate might be militant atheists. To begin with, France is a largely secularized country. There's increasing intolerance towards traditional Christianity, or what atheists perceive to be Christian. Often they have no firsthand knowledge of Christianity. The Catholic church is their default symbol for Christianity. More so in a historically Catholic nation like France.
In addition, the ongoing abuse scandal has done irreparable damage to the reputation of the Catholic church. So I'm guessing, and this is just a hunch, that most of the vandalism of French churches is a combination of Muslim immigrants and militant atheists.
It would be interesting to have comparative data from other European countries–as well as Great Britain.
Does it have to be a group with a political aim? Bored teenagers is another possibility. Evil is often banal.
ReplyDeleteA few incidents might be juvenile delinquency, but the recency and extent of the vandalism suggests something more systematic.
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