Are more churches attacked than mosque

1. Why raw counts favor churches but rates favor mosques

Multiple reports show that the majority of documented attacks occur at Christian or Catholic churches in the U.S., reflecting the fact that more than 90% of congregations nationwide are Christian or Catholic, so a majority-share of incidents will fall on churches in absolute terms ^[1]. The A-Mark Foundation report makes this explicit: Christian or Catholic locations accounted for about 56% of attacks in its database, while Muslim congregations—only about 0.6% of U.S. congregations—accounted for roughly 17% of attacks, which indicates a much higher per-congregation risk for mosques ^[1]. Dolan Consulting likewise noted that Islamic mosques and Sikh temples showed a “clearly disproportionate rate” of violence relative to their numbers ^[2].

2. Recent U.S. reporting: numbers, trends and advocacy influences

Advocacy and denominational groups have published tallies showing high counts of attacks on churches in recent years—Family Research Council–linked reporting compiled open-source incidents and found hundreds of church attacks in single years, noting spikes tied to political flashpoints such as the overturning of Roe v. Wade ^{[3] [4]}. Those tallies confirm high raw numbers but rely on open-source methods—news articles, advocacy notices and press reports—which can bias totals toward high-profile incidents and may reflect the agendas of those compiling the lists ^{[3] [4]}. Reports that focus narrowly on church-targeted hostility can therefore understate the disproportionate per-congregation risk faced by smaller religious communities documented elsewhere ^[1].

3. Global picture: violence cuts across faiths and contexts

Outside the U.S., attacks on houses of worship are shaped by armed conflict, insurgency and state repression; militant groups in parts of Africa have destroyed thousands of churches, yet Islamist militants also perpetrate mass-casualty attacks on mosques in other theatres, so no single faith is uniformly more targeted worldwide ^{[5] [6]}. Pew’s global surveys show that governments and social actors harassed religious groups in nearly every region, and religion-related physical assaults occurred in dozens of countries, underscoring that vulnerability is context-dependent and geographically uneven ^[7].

4. Data caveats: definitions, denominators and reporting bias

Comparisons depend on whether one counts raw incident totals, per-congregation rates, or severity of attacks; different sources use different methodologies. The Family Research Council’s U.S. reports use open-source compilation that can skew toward incidents that attract media attention ^[3], while the A-Mark and academic datasets emphasize rates by comparing attacks to the estimated number of congregations, revealing disproportionate targeting of Jewish and Muslim houses of worship despite lower absolute counts ^[1]. Pandemic closures, reporting practices and disparate security investments at larger churches versus smaller mosques or synagogues also affect year-to-year comparisons ^{[1] [8]}.

5. Bottom line and competing interpretations

The straight numeric answer is: more attacks have been documented at Christian churches in the U.S. because most congregations are Christian ^[1]. The crucial qualification is that mosques are targeted at a far higher rate relative to their numbers—meaning smaller communities face disproportionate risk—even as political, methodological and advocacy-driven inventories emphasize different aspects of the phenomenon ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Available sources do not permit a single, definitive global ranking of “which faith is attacked more” without clarifying whether the comparison uses raw counts, per-congregation rates, geographic scope or motive.