SOAR Baseline Research Report

This baseline research report update provides the basic information of seven countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Nether lands, Hungary, Austria) regarding the security of places of worship, religious demographics, legislation concerning church-state relations, threat picture and adopted national policies to mitigate hate crime. The data is based on interviews, media reports, the latest academic research and reports of EU-funded and state-funded research institution. The report’s research design and questions derive from the ISFP-2020-AG-Project application of the EU-funded project Strengthening the security and resilience of at- risk religious sites and communities (SOAR) and internal discussions within the SOAR consortium. According to the application, the three main objectives of the report include 1) provide baseline data to identify key issues and possible gaps affecting protection and security of the religious sites, 2) to provide evidence base to support advocacy tools for working with policymakers, and 3) report security challenges faced by religious communities in the focus countries.