European Parliament President admits that Christians are ‘Not Safe in Our Continent’.
Someone is finally raising the alarm that Christians are at risk of genocide at the hands of radical Islam – that according to a high-level meeting on religious persecution in Brussels following the horrific series of coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris that took the lives of 130 people last month and sent the continent into lockdown.
According to President of the European Parliament (EP) Martin Schulz, Europe can no longer afford to ignore the fate of Christians who are “clearly the most persecuted group” in the world adding that Christian persecution is “undervalued”, does not receive enough attention and “hasn’t been properly addressed” in the West.
EP Vice President Antonio Tajani added that Europe has succumbed to “the temptation of thinking we can ignore this task” saying Western powers must do more to protect Christians throughout the world who are suffering persecution for their faith. According to Dr. Thomas D. Williams writing for Breitbart News:
“Speakers cited the work of Open Doors, a human rights organization that monitors the persecution of Christians, noting that 150 million Christians worldwide suffer torture, rape, and arbitrary imprisonment. Christians in Iraq, Somalia, Syria, Pakistan, North Korea and Nigeria are among those hardest hit.”
A 2015 World Watch List report published by Open Doors found that:
“Islamic extremism is by far the most significant persecution engine” of Christians in the world today and that “40 of the 50 countries on the World Watch List are affected by this kind of persecution.”
Williams reported that Tajani said Islamists consider Christians:
“…”crusaders” of Europe and because of Islamic persecution in the Middle East more than 70 percent of Christians have fled Iraq since 2003, with another 700 thousand Christians who have been forced to leave their home in Syria since the outbreak of civil war.
“Each month 200 churches and places of worship in the world are attacked and destroyed. Every day and in every region of the world, there are new cases of persecution against Christians…”
“No religious community is as subject to hatred, violence and systematic aggression as the Christians,” Tajani said.
Tajani at once blamed radicalized religion for the problem but that religion can also be the solution.
“In the name of religion, we have an obligation to condemn all those who show contempt for life and kill in the name of God,” he said. “Whoever shoots in the name of God, shoot against God.”
Another meeting attendee, auxiliary bishop Jean Kockerols of Brussels said:
“…the idea that Christians are intruders in certain Muslim-dominated countries must be debunked, since the Christian presence in the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent “dates back to centuries before the spread of the Koran.”
Tajani added that:
“The West must break the silence on the persecution of Christians in the world”… and that “Europe must promote “a model of society in opposition to religious radicalism and brutal and criminal projects, such as creating an Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria and then extending its tentacles into to Libya.”
Schulz concluded that the Christian persecution “should shake us up”… and acknowledge, “that on our continent, Christians are not safe.”
