The desecration of Islam and Muslim discrimination are widely debated by media. The cartoons in Denmark, the ban on hijab in France, the Innocence of Muslims movie and the desecration of Quran by US servicemen in Afghanistan etc. – all these kind of stories were going around being by agencies newswires. The plight of Christians is not so much in the focus of public attention, but in reality it’s terrifying: every five minutes a Christian is killed for his faith, over one hundred million Christians are being persecuted nowadays. (1)
At the beginning of 2011 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted the Resolution «On the Situation of Christians in the Context of Freedom of Religion» condemning the killings and discrimination against Christians in several countries. The Resolution contains a proposal to develop a permanent capacity to monitor the situation of restrictions on religious freedom. (2) A similar resolution was adopted by the European Parliament. Yet, in the period of 2011-2012 the persecutions against Christians have been considerably on the rise… (3) Terrorist acts against Christians in Egypt and Nigeria used to happen from time to time before. Now they take place on massive scale if you take into account the sheer number of victims. The actions have become coordinated, their geography has spread. One of the most significant results of the so called Arab Spring was massive elimination of Christian population. Over a half out of 60 thousand Libyan Christians had to flee the country. Ninety percent or fifty thousand of Christians left their homes in the Syrian city of Homs. More than one and a half million Christians lived in Iraq until 2003. Nowadays, just one tenth of the Christian population still lives there, the rest have either been killed or had to emigrate. The situation has aggravated to the extent to make Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi say that a drive to stop anti-Christian atrocities should be a top priority of world leaders. (4)
The spread of discrimination against Christians is not limited by Muslim countries or the continents situated far away from Europe. For instance, only the second attempt to defend the Christians rights was successful in the case Lautsi vs. Italy (the case on crucifixes to be displayed in classrooms of state schools). The case was brought before the European Court of Human Rights, which at first ruled that the requirement in Italian law didn’t violate the European Convention on Human Rights. Only an appeal to the Grand Chamber of the Court helped to reverse the ruling. Still an attempt to do away with Christianity as the predominant religion in Italy did take place! (5) The British Christians are also waging a heavy legal battle against the state. (6)
Religious studies experts say the center of Christianity will shift from the places of its birth to other areas by the middle of XXI. Over a hundred millions Christians will live in America and Africa (Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the USA). (7) But life there won’t be a bed of roses. During the recent 110 years the number of Christians living in Tropical Africa has increased approximately by 67 times (8), during the same period the number of Muslims has grown by 22 times (9), but the trend has been reversed in the last dozens of years. The attacks committed by Muslim extremist organizations against Christians are on the rise. For instance, Boco Harum in Nigeria calls for fight against Western education, something it does by exploding Christian churches, especially on the dates of major Christian holidays. The situation has worsened so that the International Criminal Court had to launch investigations into Boco Harum activities.
The reduction of Greek Orthodox Christians in the world is striking. Ethiopia has traditionally been considered to be a bastion of this faith in Africa. The number of believers nowadays has become no more than 40%. The figure is comparable with the number of Ethiopian Muslims (35%); this proportion continues to change unfavorably for the Orthodox Church. The war against Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina was a war against the whole Christianity, but the elimination of Serbs in Croatia was one of the first wars waged against the very Orthodox faith. The Kosovo conflict’s genesis is more complicated (10); still it’s a one more example of fight against the Orthodoxy. No matter over a dozen of years have passed since the genocide of 1998-1999 and the pogroms of 2004, the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Serbian clergy face constant perils even now. (11) The attacks against Orthodox shrines and desecration of Orthodox cemeteries continue. (12)
It should be noted the concepts are being changed inside the Muslim religion: Islam is being substituted by Islamism. In the global religious information war Muslims are presented as the main enemy of Christianity on the one hand, while the traditional Islam supporters are eliminated by Islamists on the other hand. Mali is a vivid example, Islam is a traditional religion but Christian holidays were respected, there was enviable tolerance towards other faiths. (13) There are many other cases in point.
It’s not Islam, but rather Islamism that serves as an instrument of global power in its fight against Christianity. The fight is international; it keeps on shifting to the territory of Russia. Cutting crosses and provocations committed in the Christ the Savior Church in Moscow are the first harbingers of global offensive against Russia as the universal stronghold of the Greek Orthodox Church.
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