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Several churches in Sri Lanka were attacked on Easter Sunday by what authorities believe to be Muslim extremists. The suicide bombers killed about 300 and injured hundreds more.
Just a week earlier, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which has stood for nearly 900 years, was the site of a catastrophic fire that turn its wooden roof to ash. Authorities have floated the explanation that a "computer glitch" caused the blaze.
But Islam critic Pamela Geller, under the headline "Notre Dame Cathedral inferno 'intentionally set,'" cited Time columnist Christopher J. Hale writing: "A Jesuit friend in Paris who works in #NotreDame told me cathedral staff said the fire was intentionally set."
Geller noted France has been hit with a string of fires at Catholic churches, some of which occurred alongside desecration of sacred objects and acts of vandalism.
Michael Snyder, writing for InfoWars, cited statistics from the Christian ministry Open Doors counting an average of 105 attacks a month on churches.
Open Doors USA said Christians "remain one of the most persecuted religious groups in the world."
"While Christian persecution takes many forms, it is defined as any hostility experienced as a result of identification with Christ. Christian torture remains an issue for believers throughout the world including the risk of imprisonment, loss of home and assets, physical torture, beheadings, rape and even death as a result of their faith," the ministry said.
"Trends show that countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East are intensifying persecution against Christians, and perhaps the most vulnerable are Christian women, who often face double persecution for faith and gender."
The organization said that every month, 345 Christians "are killed for faith-related reasons," 105 churches and Christian buildings are burned or attacked and 219 Christians are detained without trial.
Only days after the Notre Dame fire, a deranged philosophy professor was arrested while bringing gas cans and lighter fluid into St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.
"Fortunately a great tragedy was averted in that case, but most churches around the world are very 'soft targets' with absolutely no security whatsoever," Snyder wrote. "And these days, there is literally nowhere that is safe. Attacks on churches are happening literally all over the globe, and sometimes they happen right in the middle of a worship service."
Snyder warned, "By a very wide margin, churches are the number one target for hate attacks, and it is only going to get worse."
That includes in the United States, where three churches in Louisiana recently were destroyed by arson. There have been at least 18 fatal shooting attacks on churches in the United States just since Columbine.
Open Doors said: "In seven out of the top 10 World Watch List countries [for persecution of Christians], the primary cause of persecution is Islamic oppression. This means, for millions of Christians – particularly those who grew up Muslim or were born into Muslim families – openly following Jesus can have painful consequences. They can be treated as second-class citizens, discriminated against for jobs or even violently attacked."
In just one week in March, there were a dozen church attacks in France.
Talk-radio host Dennis Prager wrote in a column: "I don't know if a worker accident or a radical Muslim set fire to Notre Dame Cathedral (as they have scores of other churches around Europe). In terms of what the fire represented, it doesn't much matter. What matters is the omen: Europe is burning, just as Notre Dame was."
Prager said the "symbolism of the burning of Notre Dame Cathedral, the most renowned building in Western civilization, the iconic symbol of Western Christendom, is hard to miss."
In France, in 2018, the Ministry of the Interior recorded 541 anti-Semitic acts, 100 anti-Muslim acts and 1063 anti-Christian acts.
WND reported nearly 2,000 Christian houses of worship in France have been desecrated in the past two years, according to police. In Germany, there were four such incidents in March.
Some French politicians have attributed the church desecrations -- averaging more than two a day – to "militant secularism."
But in virtually every attack across Europe, writes Raymond Ibrahim for the Gatestone Institute, "authorities and media obfuscate the identity of the vandals."
"In those rare instances when the Muslim (or "migrant") identity of the destroyers is leaked, the desecraters are then presented as suffering from mental health issues," he writes.
Don't count on reporting to fully detail what's going on either.
After the Notre Dame fire, two Fox News personalities shut down comments about the recent surge of attacks on Christian churches across France.
Shepherd Smith was interviewing French official Philippe Karsenty, who said the cathedral had been there for 850 years and "even the Nazis didn't dare to destroy it."
"You need to know for the last year we've had churches desecrated," Karsenty said. "Of course you will hear the story of the politically correct which will tell you it is probably an accident."
At which point Smith cut him off with, "Not on my watch."
Catholic League President Bill Donahue was on with Neil Cavuto.
"Forgive me for being suspicious. Just last month a 17th century church was set on fire in Paris," Donohue said, reciting the recent attacks on churches. "We've seen tabernacles knocked down, crosses have been torn down. Statues have been smashed."
Cavuto interrupted, saying, "We don't know that."
After a brief interlude, Donahue again brought up the recent attacks against Christian symbols.
"When I find out that the eucharist is being destroyed, and excrement is being smeared on crosses. This is going on now."
Cavuto interrupted again.
"We cannot make conjectures," he said.
And he essentially hung up on Donahue.
Neil Cavuto Hangs Up on Catholic League’s Bill Donohue During Interview About Notre Dame
"Just last month, a 17th-century church was set on fire in Paris. We’ve seen tabernacles knocked down, crosses have been torn down, statues" - Donohue statedpic.twitter.com/E7YX4YIlVT— Wojciech Pawelczyk 🇵🇱 (@PolishPatriotTM) April 16, 2019
Talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh noticed the censorship, calling it a "fascinating case study."
"It is simply unacceptable. It is not tolerable. You must not even breathe the possibility of arson because if it's arson then fingers will point in one direction, and we're not gonna point in that direction. We're not gonna permit fingers to point. We're not gonna even allow thoughts in that direction," he said.
"This is simply head-in-the-sand denial, to refuse to openly accept what is happening throughout France and throughout Europe. And the very idea that there is this concerted effort coupled with a demand to ignore all of this in my nature is all I need to believe that maybe there’s some things going on that everybody knows and some just will not admit and will not permit discussion of. Because there is no denying that attacks on churches in France and all over Europe are on the upswing. It's undeniable. It's not all arson. Not random arson. And everybody knows this."