"In Europe... the social environment isn’t without problems. Just browse through the facts mentioned by the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe to be baffled by the number of cases taking place in Europe. People are discriminated against in either a veiled or opened manner, on their workplaces or in different areas of social life, and this only because they are Christian."
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.
Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate's department for external Church relations, pointed to a "basic danger" of "attempting to use religious diversity as an excuse to exclude signs of Christian civilization from the public and political realities of the continent, as though this would make our continent friendlier towards non-Christians." In fact, he said, this separation endangers the representatives of any religion.
„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“: