Hundreds of millions of people around the world gather each week to worship in peace. But for some, there will come a day when deadly violence invades their sacred places and shatters that sense of refuge and safety.
This recently happened in a synagogue in England and two churches in the United States. Before that, it was there High-level attacks In mosques in New Zealand, a Jewish synagogue in Pennsylvania, and a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. This violence could exacerbate anxiety and outright fear among clergy and worshipers around the world.
Security has been beefed up, and worshipers have been placed on alert, yet the key question remains: Can the faithful feel safe – and at peace – continuing to worship together?
The October 2 attack on A Synagogue in Manchester, EnglandThe attack led to the death of two worshipers, and according to police, it was carried out by a man who pledged allegiance to ISIS. Two days later, a mosque in an English coastal town was targeted by arson.
In the wake of these two attacks, the Bishop of the Church of England, the Reverend Toby Howarth, said: “There is real fear.” “People should feel safe going to places of worship.”
How to instill this feeling is an ongoing challenge. In Germany, in response to several attacks, many synagogues were cordoned off with barricades and guarded by heavily armed police. In the United States, most synagogues – and many non-Jewish houses of worship – use multi-layered security strategies. This can include guards, cameras, and various systems to control access to events through ticketing, registration, or other forms of auditing.
The deadliest attack on Jews in the United States occurred in October 2018, when a gunman killed 11 worshipers from three congregations at a Pittsburgh church. Tree of Life Synagogue.
Eric Kroll, deputy director of community security at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, said synagogues there began systematic security drills before the attack.
He said some training recommendations — such as keeping a phone on hand for emergencies even on the Sabbath, when observant Jews don’t typically use the phone — helped save lives during this attack. The Federation continues to evaluate attacks such as the one that occurred in Manchester to prepare for the attackers’ evolving tactics.
“The wounds are still deep here in Pittsburgh for a lot of people,” Kroll said, adding that the preparations help them worship together with confidence.
“It’s so easy to talk about all this stuff and get scared,” he said. “But if you teach ways to respond to these things, it empowers people to move forward and live their lives.”
Bishop Bonnie Perry, leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan, struck a similar tone in a letter to her followers two days later. A gunman killed four people Inside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan on September 29.
“Many of us are feeling sad, afraid, and deeply concerned,” Perry wrote. “It is natural to wonder whether the places where we pray and gather are safe.”
She proceeded to detail a balanced approach to security, rejecting suggestions that church doors should be closed during worship but encouraging greater vigilance and caution. Get readyIncluding the formation of emergency response teams in diocese churches.
“We don’t want our churches to feel like fortresses,” she wrote. “They are houses of prayer for everyone.” “At the same time, loving one’s neighbor includes a willingness to act quickly if danger arises. … Our goal is not to exclude people, but to keep everyone safe while maintaining the radical hospitality of the gospel.”
While some Christian pastors in the United States encourage congregants to bring firearms to church as an additional security measure, many denominations and individual houses of worship prohibit it. After the Grand Blanc attack, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints confirmed that it prohibits the carrying of firearms and other deadly weapons inside meetinghouses and temples, except by current law enforcement officers.
Black churches in the United States have withstood a long history of violent attacks, from decades of church burnings and bombings to the 2015 murder of nine Bible study participants. Mother Emmanuel AME (Charleston, South Carolina). The perpetrator of this attack, now on death rowposted selfies with the Confederate flag to show off Its racist justifications For shooting black churchgoers.
Khalilah Harris, 29, a member of Metropolitan AME in Washington, D.C., said the threat of violence is often on her mind.
“It can be difficult to be part of a worship service, and you look around and there are five police officers on duty because someone just walked in, and they look a little suspicious. It changes the atmosphere,” said Harris, who is involved in the AME ordination process.
Her church He won a lawsuit earlier this year against the Proud Boys, after the far-right group vandalized church property in 2020. The group has beefed up security, at one point paying $20,000 a month.
It’s a struggle to balance being a welcoming congregation with tight security protocols, Harris said. “How can welcoming everyone and being non-judgmental prevent someone from using their insight or taking security measures?”
Attacks on houses of worship have occurred throughout history in various forms. Nowadays, attacks on individual houses of worship in places like the United States and Western Europe tend to attract more international attention than attacks that are part of broader ongoing conflicts — such as the burning of Christian churches by Islamist militants in parts of Africa or the destruction of numerous mosques in Gaza by Israeli strikes in its war against Hamas.
Attacks on mosques – often blamed on Islamist militants with rival ideologies – have occurred in other Middle Eastern countries.
Egypt I staggered in 2017 More than 300 people were killed in an armed attack on a mosque in Sinai frequented by Sufis, followers of a Sufi movement within Islam. On March 4, 2022, an Afghan suicide bomber carried out an attack inside a Shiite mosque in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing more than 60 worshipers. The Islamic State claimed responsibility.
In between those attacks, there was a day of terror in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, when a white supremacist gunman… 51 worshipers were killed at two mosques during Friday prayers in 2019. This led to new laws banning a range of semi-automatic firearms and high-capacity magazines. It also led to global changes in social media protocols after the gunman live-streamed his attack on Facebook.
During a wave of anti-Semitic incidents in Australia, Synagogue in Melbourne A firebomb was dropped in December 2024. Australian authorities accused Iran of directing this attack.
Australia is among several countries, including South Africa and Britain, that have teamed up with the US-based Safe Communities Network to share information on potential anti-Semitic threats, according to Strong Cities Network national director Michael Masters. The network provides security advice and training to Jewish institutions throughout North America.
“We are behaving more like Interpol than we would like,” Masters told the Associated Press. “A lot of these bad actors and their ideologies cross borders. So we all realized that we are stronger when we work together.”
In the United States, religious leaders are urging Congress to expand the security grant program for nonprofit organizations. It helps nonprofits and houses of worship pay for security system upgrades and plan for emergencies.
In Britain, after the recent Manchester attack, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that more police forces would be deployed in Jewish synagogues.
From both Jewish and Muslim communities in Britain, there are calls for authorities and civic leaders to curb anti-Semitic or anti-Muslim vitriol that could incite future attacks.
Dave Rich, of the Community Security Foundation, a charity that provides security for the Jewish community, told the BBC: “There is an inability to acknowledge anti-Semitism or a reluctance to deal with incitement in ways that have allowed it to grow.”
“I think a lot of Jews would say, well, compassion is great, but where is the action?” Ghani added.
Wajid Akhtar, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said expanding police deployment was only a partial answer.
“There must be a reckoning with the hatred that is being stoked in our public discourse,” he said. “The safety of British Muslims, and of all religious communities, depends on it.”
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AP journalists Sylvia Howe and Lydia Doy in London; Geir Molson in Berlin; Maryam Pham in Cairo contributed.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP cooperation With The Conversation US, funded by Lilly Endowment Inc., the AP is solely responsible for this content.