-Report: Christians are Increasingly Being Marginalized in Europe
by Dr. D ~ December 18th, 2010
(European Union via Wikipedia)
A new report released by the Observatory of Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe has voiced concern over the decreasing ability of Christians in Europe to publicly express their faith.
It warned that new European discriminatory laws and ‘equality’ legislation was leading to “side-effect discrimination” against Christians.
According to the report:
“Hate speech legislation has a tendency to indirectly discriminate against Christians, criminalising core elements of Christian teaching,”
“We recommend that legislators carefully consider legislation with a view to freedom of religion, speech and conscience especially with regard to its effect on Christians.”
The report included examples of outright discrimination against Christians on the job and in the marketplace. Many have been asked to refrain from the wearing of crosses and others have lost their jobs for refusing to complete tasks which are against their religious convictions.
Response: It is interesting that in some cases Christians are actually being singled out for discrimination while those of other religions with similar teachings get a pass. The very laws that are supposed to bring equality and lessen discrimination have had the exact opposite affect when it comes to Christians with traditional Biblical views.
Now when it comes to the Muslims in Europe these laws do not seem to be equally applied. Not only that, no one even seems to expect them to appropriately respond to the very same laws on the books. Muslims are seldom asked to give up their religious symbols or violate their convictions.
For example, Christians are getting in trouble for violating ‘hate-speech’ laws by merely teaching that homosexuality is against God’s Biblical laws while homosexuals are not even tolerated or may even be subject to physical harm if they should happen to stray into Muslim neighborhoods anywhere in the UK or Europe.
Some European imams have even gone so far as to publically proclaim that all homosexuals should be killed or forcibly eliminated. These same Muslim leaders have not been arrested for suggesting and supporting violence while a number of Christian preachers have been picked up for merely expressing traditional Biblical views.
