Originally published at The Crux
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Statistically, attending a weekly worship service is a remarkably safe thing to do. Global annual attendance totals many billions; the number of people killed in attacks on individual houses of worship in any given year is generally less than a few hundred.
But an ambush Thursday targeting one of the nation’s largest synagogues — the latest in a spate of recent attacks targeting religious buildings — has intensified fear among clergy and worshippers worldwide.
Here is a list of some of the notable attacks that have occurred on houses of worship in the past 15 years.
United States
March 12, 2026: A man armed with a rifle rammed his vehicle into a major reform synagogue in a Detroit suburb and was fatally shot by security. The attacker drove through a set of doors and into a hallway where something in the vehicle ignited, a sheriff said. In the minutes after the attack, smoke billowed from the synagogue, which also houses an early childhood center. No one was injured.
Sept. 29, 2025: An ex-Marine smashed a pickup truck into a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints church in Michigan, opened fire and set the building ablaze during a crowded Sunday service and then was fatally
