Community Safety First – Protecting All Places of Worship

Overview:

Across the European Union, faith communities and institutions are facing increased hatred because of their skin colour, ethnicity, religion and gender – despite various efforts of the European Union and its Member States to tackle this problem.

Fault Tree Analysis into terrorist attacks on Places of Worship in Europe found that Places of Worship were attacks at a higher % than any other ‘soft target’ (Airports, Museums, Trains, Restaurants). It was also found that bomb and arson attacks made up the most widespread type of attacks against Places of worship (87.5%).

We have seen following the Christchurch shooting in 2019, there has been a global pattern of hate and anti-mosque discourse. Recently, German security institutions arrested 12 members of a far-right group that “plot to attack multiple mosques.” Hate Crime attacks against Mosques and other places of worship has only increased in 2020 following the end of the COVID-19 lockdown.

Enhancing Faith Institutions provide detailed and various training services to faith institutions to increase their security and keep their buildings and worshippers safe and secure.

What we do:

Places of worship security is a core service we provide across Europe, providing security advice and training to any faith institution that needs support.

Places of worship security has been set up by Enhancing Faith Institutions to aid Management Committees in protecting the religious institutions. Places of worship as institutions are the central body of the faith community. Maintaining the safety of faith institutions and ensuring its protection is one of the most important things for a management committee to consider and implement.

In order to try and mitigate the harm caused by hate crime attacks and to faith institutions the tools to stay prepared to deal with an issue, Enhancing Faith Institutions provides advice, training and support to ensure institutions and its congregations are protected.

Protecting Places of Worship Training