Every week, hundreds of millions of people around the world gather in peace to worship. But for some, the day comes when deadly violence invades their sacred space and their sense of sanctuary and safety is shattered.
It recently happened in a synagogue in England and two churches in America. Before that, High profile attacks At a mosque in New Zealand, a synagogue in Pennsylvania, and a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. This violence is likely to increase anxiety and outright fear among clergy and worshipers around the world.
Although safety measures have been tightened and believers are on high alert, important questions remain. Will believers be able to continue worshiping together with peace of mind?
Attack incident on October 2nd Synagogue in Manchester, Englandkilled two believers, and police say it was carried out by a man who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State. Two days later, a mosque in a British coastal town was targeted in a suspected arson attack.
“There is real fear” following the two attacks, said the Right Reverend Toby Howarth, an Anglican bishop. “People need to feel safe going to places of worship.”
How to instill that feeling is always a challenge. In Germany, many synagogues are fenced off and guarded by heavily armed police after repeated attacks. In the United States, most synagogues, and many non-Jewish houses of worship, employ a multi-layered security strategy. These may involve various systems for controlling access to events through security guards, cameras, ticketing, registration, and other forms of screening.
Pursuing safety without increasing anxiety
The deadliest attack on Jews in the United States occurred in October 2018, when a gunman killed 11 worshipers from three congregations in Pittsburgh. Tree of Life Synagogue.
Eric Kroll, vice director of community safety for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, said synagogues in the area had begun systematic security training before the attack.
He said some of the training’s recommendations, such as keeping a cellphone handy in case of an emergency, even on the Sabbath, when observant Jews typically don’t use their phones, helped save lives during that attack. The federation continues to assess attacks like the one in Manchester to prepare for attackers’ evolving tactics.
“Here in Pittsburgh, the wounds for many people remain deep,” Kroll said, adding that the preparations have allowed them to worship together with confidence.
“It’s so easy to talk about all these things and get scared,” he said. “But if you teach people how to deal with those things, you can empower them to live their lives.”
Bishop Bonnie Perry, leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan, echoed similar sentiments in a letter to her congregation two days later. gunman kills 4 people Inside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Grand Blanc, Michigan area on September 29.
“Many of us are feeling sadness, fear, and deep anxiety,” Perry wrote. “It is natural to wonder if the places where we pray and gather are safe.”
She elaborated on a balanced approach to safety, rejecting the suggestion that church doors be locked during services, but encouraging greater vigilance and vigilance. preparationthe formation of emergency response teams in parish churches, etc.
“We do not want the church to feel like a fortress. The church is a house of prayer for all,” she wrote. “At the same time, love of neighbor includes the readiness to act quickly if danger appears.…Our goal is not to exclude people, but to protect the safety of all while maintaining the fundamental hospitality of the Gospel.”
Disagreements over guns in church
Some Christian pastors in the United States encourage their members to bring firearms into church as an added security measure, but many denominations and individual houses of worship prohibit this. After the Grand Blanc attack, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints affirmed that firearms and other weapons are prohibited in its meeting halls and temples, except for active law enforcement officers.
Black churches in the United States have endured a long history of violent attacks, from decades of church burnings and bombings to the 2015 killing of nine Bible study participants. Mother Emmanuel AME Located in Charleston, South Carolina. The culprit of that attack is now death row inmateposted a selfie holding a Confederate flag to show off. his racist rationale He was accused of shooting and killing a black churchgoer.
Khalilah Harris, 29, a member of Metropolitan AME in Washington, D.C., said the threat of violence is always on her mind.
“It can be difficult to attend a service, because you look around and there are five police officers attending the service, and someone has just come in and they’re looking a little suspicious. It changes the atmosphere,” said Harris, an AME who is in the process of ordination.
her church won the lawsuit It staged protests against the Proud Boys earlier this year after the far-right group vandalized church grounds in 2020. The organization beefed up security, at one point paying $20,000 a month.
Harris said it’s difficult to balance being a welcoming congregation with increased security. “How does welcoming everyone and not being quote-unquote judgmental prevent someone from providing insight or taking security precautions?”
global issues
Attacks on places of worship have occurred in various forms throughout history. Attacks on individual houses of worship in places such as the United States and Western Europe now tend to receive more international attention than attacks that are part of broader ongoing conflicts, such as the burning of Christian churches by Islamic extremists in parts of Africa or the destruction of many mosques in Gaza in an Israeli attack launched in its war with Hamas.
Attacks on mosques, usually blamed on Islamic extremists with competing ideologies, have also occurred in other Middle Eastern countries.
egypt happened in 2017 More than 300 people were killed in a militant attack on a mosque in Sinai frequented by Sufis, a mystical movement within Islam. On March 4, 2022, an Afghan suicide bomber attacked a Shiite mosque in Peshawar, a city in northwestern Pakistan, killing more than 60 worshipers. The extremist group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.
In between these attacks was a day of terror at the hands of a white supremacist gunman in Christchurch, New Zealand. Killed 51 worshipers This led to new laws banning a range of semi-automatic firearms and high-capacity magazines. It also prompted a global change in social media protocols after the gunman livestreamed his attack on Facebook.
Amid a series of anti-Semitic incidents in Australia, melbourne synagogue Australian officials accused Iran of ordering the attack.
SCN national director Michael Masters said Australia was among the countries, along with South Africa and the UK, working with the US-based Secure Communities Network to share information about potential anti-Semitic threats. The network provides safety advice and training to Jewish organizations across North America.
“We are acting more like Interpol than we would like,” Masters told The Associated Press. “So many of these villains and their ideologies transcend national borders. So we all realized that we are stronger when we work together.”
next step
In the United States, religious leaders are appealing to Congress to expand the nonprofit security grant program. It helps nonprofits and houses of worship pay for security system upgrades and emergency plans.
In the UK, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said more police resources would be put into synagogues following the recent Manchester attack.
There have been calls from both Britain’s Jewish and Muslim communities for authorities and civic leaders to curb anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim abuse that could incite future attacks.
Dave Rich, from the Community Security Trust, a charity that provides safety for Jewish communities, told the BBC: “The failure to recognize anti-Semitism and the reluctance to deal with incitement is only making it worse.”
“I think a lot of Jews would say OK, sympathy is great, but where are the concrete actions?” Rich added.
Wajid Akhter, general secretary of the Islamic Council of Britain, said increasing police deployment was only a partial solution.
“We must reflect on the incitement of hatred in our public spaces,” he said. “The safety of British Muslims and all faith communities depends on it.”
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Associated Press writers Sylvia Hoy and Lydia Doy in London; Gail Moulson in Berlin; and Mariam Pham in Cairo contributed.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through The Associated Press collaboration Funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. and in collaboration with The Conversation US. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
