Turkish President Gül was asked by reporters about the status of Christians in Turkey. The reasons for asking were the expropriation of the Syriac-Orthodox monastery Mor Gabriel, the reproach that Christians are denied government jobs, and the unclear legal status of Christian communities in Turkey. Gül answered, that the treament of Christians in Turkey was a „disgrace“.
Interview with Dr. Massimo Introvigne, Italian sociologist of religion, representative of the chair-in-office of the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions, Rome/Vienna.
"The right to hold religious beliefs, and to act in keeping with one's faith, is being set against the right not to be offended – and is losing. This is a dispiriting trend in a free society. The views of the Bulls will seem to many to be old-fashioned, even distasteful – but they have every right to hold them. A pervasive climate of political correctness, however, is driving such beliefs to the margins; the law is out of kilter. It no longer protects the freedom of the believer in the way that it defends the interests of those who consider themselves discriminated against. As we have argued before, this is an unhealthy imbalance that needs to be redressed – if not by the courts, then by Parliament."
"Sadly, in certain countries, mainly in the West, one increasingly encounters in political and cultural circles, as well in the media, scarce respect and at times hostility, if not scorn, directed towards religion and towards Christianity in particular. It is clear that if relativism is considered an essential element of democracy, one risks viewing secularity solely in the sense of excluding or, more precisely, denying the social importance of religion. But such an approach creates confrontation and division, disturbs peace, harms human ecology and, by rejecting in principle approaches other than its own, finishes in a dead end. There is thus an urgent need to delineate a positive and open secularity which, grounded in the just autonomy of the temporal order and the spiritual order, can foster healthy cooperation and a spirit of shared responsibility."
“We may have gone too far. If the law has gone too far in one direction, then the experience of the law is that it tends to move back. The law must be above any sectional interest even if it is an interest of a faith but at the same time it must be aware of the proper concerns of that faith... The law should be developed in ways that, wherever practicable, it allows that faith to be preserved and protected."
Anthony Frontiero of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace: “Between 200 and 300 million Christians face daily threats of murder, beating, imprisonment and torture. And a further 350 to 400 million encounter discrimination in areas such as jobs and housing.”
The religious freedom of Christians in Europe is under threat from “equalities” and anti-discrimination laws around the EU, said a director of The Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) at a conference.
Virtually every human rights group and Western government agency that monitors the plight of Christians worldwide arrives at more or less the same conclusion: Between 200 million and 230 million of them face daily threats of murder, beating, imprisonment and torture, and a further 350 to 400 million encounter discrimination in areas such as jobs and housing. A conservative estimate of the number of Christians killed for their faith each year is somewhere around 150,000.
Brice Hortefeux, former French Minister of Internal Affairs: "Since the beginning of the year (2010), 323 assaults against Christian sites have been identified on French territory: 140 cemeteries and 183 places of worship were desecrated. When a church, a synagogue, a mosque, a temple or any other place of worship is attacked, when a grave is desecrated, it is the entire national community which is offended... A desecration is not only an insult to the dead but also to France and to civilization. The guilty will not go unpunished."