EU fails to agree on declaration condemning religious persecution
EU foreign ministers failed to draft a declaration condemning religious persecution this week as nations disagreed about whether or not to reference Christianity specifically in the text. The proposed declaration was rejected on January 31 as Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said that the text showed an “excess of secularism.”
Frattini said, “The final text didn’t include any mention of Christians, as if we were talking of something else, so I asked the text to be withdrawn.” France, too, wanted specific minorities like Christians and Shiites to be mentioned, but Britain and several Nordic countries did not want references to specific religions lest they spark a “clash of civilizations.”
The Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (comece), a group that represents Catholic bishops in Europe, criticized the foreign ministers’ failure. “The agreement failed due to internal wrangling among the ministers over a specific reference to Christians being included as victims of religious persecution,” it wrote. “comece wonders about this wavering since public opinion in Europe has already become aware of the particular situation of Christians in the Middle East after the recent attacks on churches in Iraq and Egypt.”
It continued:
The recent attacks against Christians are not isolated cases. Statistics on religious freedom in recent years show that the majority of acts of religious violence are perpetrated against Christians. The situation has become more serious in the Middle East, especially in Iraq where persecution could lead in the coming months to the disappearance of Christian communities. The commitment of the EU to stand for fundamental rights and religious freedom is clearly stated in the EU treaty and in the charter of fundamental rights and has been reaffirmed in many declarations. We now expect that the EU will take concrete measures to turn these general principles into significant political action.
Expect Europe’s wavering to end soon, as its leaders wake up to the clash of civilizations that is already building.
