COLUMBUS, Ohio — Kenneth L. Parker, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, is urging religious leaders to be on the lookout for signs of extremism and to learn how to report violent threats or incidents against places of worship and their members.
In recent months, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has prosecuted a man who set fire to a church in Baltimore, Ohio, and a man who made antisemitic and violent statements online while employed to provide security services at Columbus synagogues and Jewish schools.
Parker and members of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies recently met with church, mosque, temple, and synagogue leaders in Columbus and Cincinnati to discuss best practices for protecting places of worship and their congregants. They also discussed how federal and state laws are used to prosecute people who threaten or damage those institutions and engage in other acts of religious intolerance. The meeting was part of an ongoing effort by the U.S. Attorney’s Office to work with religious leaders to help keep their communities safe.
Parker said that he is committed to using all available resources to protect places of worship and their members from violence and intimidation.
“We want to assist the communities we serve by providing information about best practices for preventing targeted violence and guidance for how houses of worship can protect themselves against acts of vandalism and arson,” Parker told the assembled religious leaders.
“I will continue to meet with groups concerned about hate-motivated attacks and am dedicated to providing faith-based leaders and congregations with resources like threat assessments and safety plans to help protect our places of sanctuary and blessedness from unjust and unprovoked attacks,” said Parker.
The FBI’s 2021 Hate Crime Statistics show that there were 7,759 religiously motivated hate crimes reported in the United States. The majority of these crimes were motivated by anti-Jewish bias (59.3%), followed by anti-Black or African American bias (20.1%) and anti-Muslim bias (13.0%).
The number of religiously motivated hate crimes has been increasing in recent years, with 7,175 reported in 2019 and 6,121 reported in 2018. This increase is likely due to a number of factors, including the rise of white nationalism and the increasing visibility of minority religious groups in the United States.
The vast majority of religiously motivated hate crimes are property crimes, such as vandalism and arson. However, there were also 54 murders and non-fatal injuries motivated by religious bias reported in 2021.