Summit Crosses have adorned hill tops and mountain peaks in the Alps since the dawn of Christianity in the West. Roman legionaries are said of have brought Christianity to the Alpine region as early as second century of Christian era. In recent months, these religious and historic symbols are targets of vandalism in this mountainous region that runs between Germany and Austria. Since August, five such crosses have been severely vandalised or destroyed, Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung reports.
Islamist have recently carried out several acts of vandalism against Christian statues and symbols across Germany. In 2014, police in Cologne apprehended a gang of Islamists responsible for desecrating number of churches, stealing Christian artefacts and sending the proceeds to Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
Not just radical Muslims, but leftist activists in the Catholic-majority Bavaria State too have been waging a war on public display of Christian symbols. Since the mid-90s, activist groups have been litigating and protesting against the display of traditional crucifixes in Bavarian class rooms. Leftists have been very successful in its Lawfare against Christianity in Bavarian public life, what the leading German leftist newspaper TAZ described as “Victory over Crucifix-Madness.”
Austrian and German police in the Alpine region are still searching for the culprits and their motives. Eye witness accounts put the age of the suspect between 20 to 40 years, pointing to more than one perpetrator. Regional Bavarian broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk writes:
Alpine Club [caretaker of Summit Crosses] is shocked and baffled. The series of attacks on Summit Crosses in Bayern carries on unabated. The cross in Scharfreiter im Tölzer Land has now been destroyed for the third time.Barely 2 weeks had passed since the Summit Cross was newly erected and consecrated after the last saw attack. Now one or several unknown perpetrators have struck again. The oak wood cross was destroyed between Tuesday evening and Thursday night. (…)Initially in August the cross was so severely damaged that it had to be removed. The incident was followed by other attacks on Summit Crosses, including on Dudl-Alm in Längental and on Prinzkopf. At that time Police suspected the incident to be a form of protest against religious symbols. [Auhor’s translation]
Bayerischer Rundfunk also carried a report on vandalism inside a Catholic church in Bavarian city of Passau. Parish Vicar Fr. Manuel Schlögl described the scene inside his church:
“The large processional cross was broken with brutal force into two parts by the perpetrators. The candles were scattered all over the place and the Sanctuary Light was smashed from the lamp, and the on the Main Altar the altar cloth was place on the lamb over the Tabernacle and set on fire, probably with the intent of burning down the whole altar.” [Auhor’s translation]
With mainstream German media obsessed with Islamophobia, reports of desecration of churches and Christian symbols go at best under-reported at national level.
Both Radical Muslims and Radical Left are united in their hatred of Western Civilisation resting on Judeo-Christian foundations. And both understand the politics of symbolism. Coordinated attacks on Christian symbols, be it through political agitation or brute force, are attacks on the pre-eminence of the values and the institutions of the West.
Video: Ariel view of Alpine Summit Crosses:
[Cover image courtesy MediaCreativFly, Youtube]
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