Question 17095 — public order

Summary

Mrs. Valérie Boyer alerts the Minister of the Interior to the desecration of places of worship and cemeteries. No less than nine churches were targeted between January 28 and February 10, 2019 without it making the headlines for several days, the latest desecrations to date, February 9, 2019 at Notre-Dame de Dijon. On February 3, 2019, two churches were desecrated on the same day: in Lusignan and Talmont. In these two cases, the chalices containing the hosts - some of which were spilled - have disappeared. On February 5, 2019, the Notre-Dame-des-Enfants church in Nîmes suffered a similar fate with its broken tabernacle. On the walls of the place of worship, wafers and excrement were thrown. A cross was even drawn on the wall of the building with fecal matter. In cemeteries, desecration often consists of ransacking, breaking of burial, acts of vandalism targeting accessories, funerary plaques, inscriptions, breaking of emblems, destruction of plantations. Through these desecrations, Christian contempt hits the country, the French Republic and deep values. On February 12, 2019, the Ministry of the Interior presented an assessment of the year 2018 in terms of racist acts which only presents a few figures concerning the desecration of places of worship and of which no one knows the real origin. The latest “reliable” statistics come from a parliamentary report dated 2011 from the parliamentary study group on the policy of preventing and combating desecration in places of worship and cemeteries. According to statistics produced by representatives of the Ministry of the Interior for the year, 100 anti-Muslim acts were recorded in 2018, compared to 121 in 2017, 182 in 2016 and especially 429 in 2015, the year of the jihadist attacks on Charlie Hebdo and November 13. The number of anti-Semitic acts has also increased significantly. 541 acts targeting Jews were recorded last year (+ 74% compared to 2017), including 183 “actions” and 358 threats. The number of anti-Christian acts is also increasing in 2018, with 1,063 acts recorded, compared to 1,038 in 2017. According to statistics produced by representatives of the Ministry of the Interior for the year 2017, 978 desecrations were counted, compared to 621 in 2010. They were distributed as follows: 878 attacks on Christian buildings and graves (compared to 522 in 2010), an average of two per day; 72 attacks on Muslim sites (compared to 57 in 2010); 28 attacks on places of worship and Jewish graves. That it aims at places of worship or cemeteries, whatever the religion, desecration never constitutes and cannot be considered an ordinary offense. It represents an unspeakable act which, in the endless litany of news items, offers us the undoubtedly growing reflection of a growing distance with the founding features of our civilization: questioning nourished by the idea of ​​transcendence; respect for dead and the aspiration of some of us for the immortality of the spirit despite the decline of the body. The history of the human species attests to this: there are indissoluble links between death and the search for the sacred and anthropologists generally consider that the appearance of true funerary rituals marks one of the decisive stages in the transition to civilization. The desecration of places of worship presents itself as a scourge persistent, the result of individual errors and, sometimes, a loss of collective points of reference. They raise a social question which can only sustainably find answers in the reaffirmation of principles of civilization and the protection of the integrity of places of worship and the residence of the deceased. Since 2008, however, we have witnessed an increase in acts of desecration. Let us remember that the vast majority of religious buildings in France is Catholic, i.e. 95% according to the Observatory of Religious Heritage (OPR). The Ministry of the Interior lists around 45,000, including 40,000 churches which belong to municipalities and 5,000 to dioceses. In addition, 87 cathedrals are state property. However, this census does not include places of worship within hospitals, prisons and schools. Therefore, it appears from the elements collected by the 2011 study group on the policy of preventing and combating desecration in places of worship and cemeteries, that the census of desecration is based on evaluation instruments and reports that are still very unsatisfactory because they do not allow an exact estimate of the seriousness of these acts. This situation is due, on the one hand, to the relative imprecision in this area of ​​the statistical apparatus of the police and justice services. In In the current state, desecration does not appear, as such, in isolation, in the data collected for monitoring delinquency. It must be said that this notion covers very diverse facts and attacks. Let us remember, there are no official statistics allowing us to measure the extent of anti-Semitic, anti-Christian or anti-Muslim acts. The law in fact prohibits qualifying an attack according to the religious origin of the victim. When filing a complaint, only the racist or discriminatory nature of the offense is taken into account. The figures we have are provided by religious associations - such as the Jewish community protection service, dependent on the CRIF - then cross-checked by the services of the Ministry of the Interior. Apprehending desecrations at the judicial level thus proves problematic because on the other hand, such acts do not necessarily give rise to a report to the police and the courts. This is why it is legitimate to believe that anti-Christian acts would be more important than those which are officially recorded. Also, she wants to know what the Government intends to do to fight more effectively against these acts. She also recalls that to date no precise figures have been brought to her attention. awareness. In addition, she wants to know how the figures are established. Furthermore, a prefect specially responsible for coordinating the protection of places of a religious nature throughout the national territory was appointed by the Minister of the Interior on January 12, 2015. She asks the Government if a future appointment is planned.

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