Story:
Map Showing Attacks on Catholic Churches in France in the last four years.
Other Versions
These are churches desecrated in France in the last 4 years.
Fact Check:
A map in wide circulation on social media appears with a claim saying it shows Large number of Attacks on Catholic Churches in France in the last four years. Other versions say the map shows Churches desecrated in France in one year. While it is a fact that France has witnessed a rise in attacks on Churches before the Notre Dame Cathedral fire incident in Paris, the claims accompanying the map are not true.
Map Shows Attacks on Catholic Churches in France?
Social media users shared the map in question claiming to show large number of Churches destroyed or desecrated in France over the last 4 years. The posts appeared on Facebook and Twitter among others soon after the Notre Dame Fire accident. Some netizens started calling it a Muslim terror attack and then came the discussion of attacks on Churches in France. There were also the allegations saying ‘controlled news media’ is trying to convince people that Notre Dame was just an accident. The latest reports as of this writing, however, suggest Notre Dame Fire cause may have been Electrical.
As mentioned in a February 2019 report, it is a fact there were some string of attacks on French churches. The attacks bothered Catholic leaders and state officials. France’s Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe issued a statement expressing shock over such acts which must be condemned unanimously. Nonetheless, as mentioned in the messages, no such large scale church attacks took place in France in last four years.
Origin of Map
The map in question also appeared on website reddit.com with more appropriate title. It was shared as ‘Map of random “accidents” that keep happening to French churches‘. As one reader commented, the map originated from a website christianophobie.fr. The website claims to show serious or anecdotal Christianophobic acts in France and around the world. The webpage is not loading properly as of this writing. But from the archived page, the logo marks used in the map seem to suggest the data also includes other incidents like graffiti and theft of property in Cemeteries along with Churches. Moreover, the graphic representation on map appears to include data for the year 2017, 2018 or both included – not for 4 years as mentioned.
So, the messages claiming the map shows large number of Churches desecrated in France in last 4 years are hoaxes. The map is often shared with the misleading, wrong caption.
Hoax or Fact:
Hoax with some valid Information.
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