Today, the European Parliament’s plenary adopted a report which, after many years, could have taken a strong action in defence of religious minorities suffering persecution. It could have taken. “Instead, the ideological ‘pressure’ of the radicalising European left has undermined the original intention of the report. It has prevented the document from effectively condemning religious persecution in line with its initial aim and prevented the report from drawing attention also to the plight of Christians who are the most persecuted for their faith”, underlined the Christian Democrat MEP György Hölvényi on the vote of the report.
The MEP said, “There is a great need for EU action against religious persecution, and this is why the report has been put to the agenda. I myself have been involved in the work with 18 amendments to underline the need of the fight against Christian and religious persecution in general and to recognise the undeniable role of faith-based organisations in humanitarian work in the text”.
“The anti-religious left, however, has deliberately reversed the original intention of the report, and instead of protecting religious minorities, they are the ones who are blamed for abusing religious freedom and being against normality. The left has used the document to blame religious leaders for violating the rights of LGBTIQ people, the rights of women and girls, and for restricting their access to education and sexual and reproductive health and rights,” stressed MEP György Hölvényi.
The Christian Democrat MEP emphasized, “It is outrages that the left-wing radicalism has gone so far as to undermine freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and to open the door to discrimination against religious communities and religious leaders. The left, through false ideologies, makes it impossible to protect the victims of religious persecution, leaving women and girls belonging to religious minorities in an even more vulnerable situation”. It ignores the importance of religious actors in the protection of human rights and human dignity.
“The left is putting pressure on the Parliament to degrade religious freedom. This is discrimination against fundamental human rights, a serious violation of freedom of speech regardless of belief or non-belief. We are witnessing a restriction of freedom of expression unprecedented even in Communist times, which cannot be supported under any circumstances”, the MEP added.
Strasbourg 3th of May
