Friday, January 21, 2011

EU must protect Christians from persecution, says MEP

The European Union needs to do more to protect the religious freedom of Christians throughout the world, Dublin Fine Gael MEP, Gay Mitchell has said.


Speaking as the co-sponsor of a European Parliament motion condemning attacks against Christians in the EU and beyond, Mr Mitchell said, "Over the past number of weeks, there has been a shocking escalation of violence against Christian people because of their faith.  The European Union represents unity and diversity, we need to stand up for those values and protect religious freedom."


His statement came after a series of high profile attacks on Christians.  

On Christmas Eve, more than 80 Christians were killed by Islamic fundamentalist groups in several cities of Nigeria.


During Christmas morning service at the Church of Agios Synesios, located in the northern Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus, police officers of the illegal Turkish Cypriot regime entered the church, forced the priest to stop the liturgy and forced the priest and the Christian Orthodox Cypriot worshippers out of the church.


On New Year's Eve, a car bomb exploded in front of a Coptic church in Alexandria, Egypt, killing 21 people.


These attacks were, "just some examples of the most appalling recent attacks.  In many other parts of the world where Christians are a minority, religious freedom is regularly trampled on in the name of power by local dictators and fundamentalist groups,” Mr Mitchell said.  “We cannot allow religious persecution to continue," he added.


Mr Mitchell, who is Chairman of the Working Group on Human Dignity at the European Parliament, co-signed and brought forward the motion for resolution to be tabled during the Parliament's plenary session next week that voices objection to and serious concern over the increasing level of attacks.


Meanwhile, Germany and Italy last Wednesday urged the European Union to step up efforts to safeguard religious freedom and protect religious minorities targeted by recent attacks in predominantly Muslim countries.


"Italy and Germany believe that freedom of faith and the rights of religious minorities are a fundamental part of the international human rights catalogue and of the universal system of values," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and his Italian counterpart, Franco Frattini, said in a statement issued after a meeting in Berlin.


"While respecting the sovereignty of national states, we believe that the European Union should constructively engage the governments of those countries where incidents of interreligious violence have occurred in order to ensure that the logic of dialogue and peace prevails over disrespect and all kinds of violence."


The ministers' joint statement came in response to recent attacks against Christian communities in such countries as Egypt and Iraq.


Westerwelle and Frattini urged EU foreign ministers due to meet on January 31 to "put forward concrete ideas on how to make the cooperation between the European Union and third countries more effective when it comes to protecting religious rights and to promote interfaith-dialogue."

SIC: CIN/IE