At an OSCE round table on hate crimes against Christians, Archbishop Mamberti, Secretary of State for Relations with States said: "Hate crimes almost invariably feed on an environment where religious freedom is not fully respected and religion is discriminated against."
At an OSCE high level meeting, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk expressed his concern about freedom of expression of Christians as well as acts of vandalism against Christians in the OSCE area.
Lamberto Zannier, OSCE Secretary General: “Hate incidents and hate crimes directed against Christians strike at the core values of the OSCE community. They violate fundamental freedoms that have formed an integral part of the OSCE acquis since the Helsinki Final Act of 1975. Just last December in Astana, our heads of state and government agreed that ‘greater efforts must be made to promote freedom of religious or belief.’ That freedom is endangered by hate crimes.”
„Religious freedom cannot be restricted to the simple freedom of worship, although the latter is obviously an important part of it," he explained. "With due respect to the rights of all, religious freedom includes, among others, the right to preach, educate, convert, contribute to the political discourse and participate fully in public activities." Archbishop Mamberti went on to say that if it is true that the risk of hate crimes is related to a denial of religious liberty, "we should not forget that there are serious problems even in areas of the world where fortunately there is no violent persecution of Christians."
One of Ireland's most influential columnists, and a long time critic of the the Catholic Church, has admitted that there is a culture of hostility in the Irish media towards religion.
According to the Catholic Herold, the Archbishop said the British courts are wrongfully penalising Christians through an “incorrect interpretation” of human rights laws, judges were guilty of “woolly thinking” and a bias against Christians who either wore religious jewellery or who had taken a moral stand against acts they held in conscience to be sinful. He also insisted that Christians must be allowed “by any reckoning” to act according to their consciences and “not be obliged to do something they know or believe in their consciences to be wrong”.
Conservative backbencher Lord Waddington tabled a motion to express regret at the unfair impact of equality laws on religious believers, and the bureaucratic burdens heaped on public bodies. Speaking in the Lords debate on September 8th, 2011, Lord Waddington said: “We want to make it plain to people that there is real concern throughout the whole country. We stand for fair, not unfair, behaviour.”
After talking about limitations to freedom of religion elsewhere, Thomas S. Kidd, a senior fellow at Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion, goes on to say in „USA Today“:
The vice-president of the Italian Parliament’s Chamber of Deputies has called on Christian politicians to “make sacrifices” and value their conscience more than their position. In an interview with Catholic News Agency published in August 2011, Professor Rocco Buttiglione, a member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences, said that Christian people must enter politics to play an active role forming “the future of the land.”