On September 23, 2023, the 8th Scientific Conference “Rationalization of Processes for Ensuring the Security of Participants of Religious Assemblies” was held at Ostrów Tumski in Wrocław.
Nowadays, places of religious worship are particularly vulnerable to attacks due to their accessibility and generally limited security measures. Extremists have targeted religious sites of many different religions for attacks, so increasing security in this area is of great importance with simultaneous attention to maintaining a balance between security and the open nature of such places.
The conference also brought together experts working with the Social Observatory Foundation under the SHIELD and ProSPeReS projects. The main goals of the conference were to share good practices and examples in the field of security of religious gatherings. This is possible by combining the scientific knowledge of academia with the experience of practitioners, i.e. representatives of religious institutions, security specialists including officers of uniformed formations responsible for security on a daily basis.
This year’s conference dealt with the topic of fire safety of religious buildings. The fire at the cathedral in Gorzow Wielkopolski was discussed, and fire safety in the context of the war in Ukraine was discuss.
Bartlomiej Majchrzak