No special day for persecuted Christians in Germany

The other political groups in the Bundestag felt too much political calculation behind the project, wrote the magazine Pro on its website. However, the human rights committee of the parliament will still look at the motion, reports Die Tagespost.

Christians are the most persecuted people on earth, says the AfD (Alliance for Germany). For this reason, the party proposed February 15th as the special day for this. On that date in 2015, Islamic State posted a video of the beheading of fifteen Coptic Christians.

According to the Christian aid organisation Open Doors, 312 million Christians in 50 countries suffer discrimination and persecution. In Germany, however, the problem is “strongly underexposed in the media”, said AfD representative Jürgen Braun.

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In the proposal, the AfD said that the federal government should “consistently name and ostracise the global, human rights-violating persecution of Christians as a burning problem”. In addition, the governments in Europe and the United Nations should do the same.

Fundamentalist

All other parties rejected the motion. According to Social Democrat representative Falko Droßmann, the AfD uses the persecuted Christians to cover up their own racism. The SPD politician described the documentation behind the application from “a well-known evangelical organisation” (meaning Open Doors) as “more than questionable”. Ecumenical reports by the Catholic and Protestant Churches on the persecution of Christians are ignored because they come up with “completely different, more detailed figures”. “They and their fundamentalist cronies around the world are against the churches, against the idea of Christianity, against the majority of this house and the majority of the people in our country,” Droßmann said in the direction of the AfD.

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One-sided

The Christian Democrat Thomas Rachel explained that members of other religions and ideologies also suffer discrimination. In its justification, the AfD application reveals a one-sided focus on the persecution of Christians by Islamist perpetrators. Although Christians are particularly affected by the violation of religious freedom worldwide, Rachel supports all religious minorities who are discriminated against and persecuted. Therefore, the CDU/CSU politician pointed out that both in the Catholic Church as in the Protestant Church, there are already special days of remembrance of persecuted Christians. The Christian Democrats also rejected the motion.