Europe's Religious Turmoil

To finish our discussion about Europe's refugee crisis and Chancellor Merkel's effort to engage Turkey in a solution, we should look at the decades-old culture clash in Europe - made more volatile by the influx of Middle East refugees. ~~~~~ The clash often is a confrontation between European traditional Christians and post-Christians and skinheads - a clash used by extremist Moslems. Media reported early this year that Christian churches are under increasing attack all over Europe. The Observatory, a Vienna-based group that monitors such attacks, reported that Christian churches have been vandalized in Switzerland and Italy, and Christian churches and graves desecrated in France. Some of the vandalism is carried out by post-Christians who oppose Catholic teachings on homosexuality. Early this year, someone vandalized a Catholic Church in the Swiss Jura Canton north of Geneva, writing, “Jesus is Gay,” and spraying satanic symbols on the outside church walls. In the same period, in the Calvados region of France, dozens of Christian symbols in a graveyard were vandalized. The Observatory also reported that the Church of Saint John the Baptist in the Italian town of Lecce was spray painted with “God is a transgender.” Other graffiti indicated that the attack was related to a nearby pro-family conference. The Observatory said that in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany, 700 church burglaries occur each year, with damages of $3 million. Not only Christian buildings in Europe, but also Christians themselves, are under attack. A year ago, leftist activists attacked Christian parents protesting against a new German sex-ed curriculum. The Observatory said the parents were spit at, and : “Pages were ripped out of the Bible and used to wipe backsides then formed into a ball and thrown at the parents.” In France, during huge demonstrations against same-sex marriage, in which one million Christians marched in Paris, peaceful demonstrators - men, women, children, and at least one former French Cabinet minister - were tear-gassed by French security forces. In Sweden, the national coordinator against violent extremism for the Swedish Ministry of Justice reportedly compared a midwife who refused to participate in abortion to ISIS terrorists. It must be noted that The Observatory is not a marginal organization - it was founded to provide information on discrimination against Christians to the institutions of the European Union, the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the UN. ~~~~~ Now, see the influx of Moslem refugees through the prism of a confrontational Christian/post-Christian Europe that is also debating how to manage the growing millions of Moslems already there. Many Europeans believe extremist Moslems who attack Middle East Christians and churches will infiltrate Europe with the refugee flood and accelerate the "moslemization" of Europe, as well as attacking Christians. In Italy last May, a recently-arrived Moslem boy of African origin beat a 12-year-old girl at school because she was wearing a crucifix necklace. Italian police didn't charge the boy because he is a minor. On Sunday, May 10, after Mass, a group of young Moslem migrants harassed a Catholic first communion procession, shouting insults and threats as the group passed in front of the Islamic Cultural Center in Conselice, a town in Romagna. On New Year's Day, an unstable Moroccan man, 67, mumbling verses from the Koran, used an iron rod to severely damage statues of the Virgin Mary, Joseph, and the Christ Child, and destroy the altars and baptistry in the church of Santa Maria Assunta in Cles, Trentino. ~~~~~ Dear readers, multiple attacks on European Christianity come at the same time that European governments are being pressured by extreme Islam in Europe to integrate Islamic customs and Sharia into Christian Europe's schools and society. The volatile mix has sent European nationalists into the streets and increased their political power. Europe faces a religion-based tipping point and Turkey may help avoid it.