Anna Mallia | Wednesday, 11 November 2009

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Back to the Crusades

The judgement of the European Court, ordering the removal of the cruficix from Italian state schools, left me very perplexed indeed. It is another blow to ourChristian heritage, and a wake up call for all of us.
In the judgement, the court ruled in favour of an Italian atheist citizen of Finnish origin who complained in 2002 that the state school where her two children studied had violated their freedom by displaying crucifixes. The school’s administration refused to remove them, contending that the crucifix is part of Italian cultural patrimony; Italian courts subsequently backed this claim. Now, the Strasbourg-based European court has asked the Italian government to compensate the woman with €5,000.
So now our Europe is faced with two situations: secularism, and the rise in the Muslim population. Fewer people are going to church and more Muslims are coming into Europe. It is a known fact that by 2050 the majority of Europeans will be Muslims. This is not fiction but a fact. In fact by 2050 the Europeans will be just over 10% with one in three over 60, one in 10 over 80. The United Nations projects that Europe will lose 124 million people by 2050: equivalent to the entire population of Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Germany.
Europe has a ration of 4.8 to 1 ratio of working age population to seniors, Europe must import 1.4 billion people by 2050. They will come from North Africa, the Middle East and the ex-colonies of the old empires. Take Italy. When Rome recently advanced a law to expel 300,000 illegal immigrants, an amendment was added to allow nannies and caretakers for the elderly to stay. The United Nations estimates that Italy will need 235,000 immigrants every year just to maintain its population stability.

By 2050, Italy’s median age will be 54, some 13 years older than the nation with the oldest median age today, Japan. Meanwhile, Italy fends off regular boatloads of Muslims.

With 12 million to 15 million Muslims in Europe, Islam has surpassed Judaism as Europe’s second religion – and is its most vibrant, for as the Christian churches of Europe empty out, the mosques are filling up.
There are more than 2,000 mosques in Germany and 5 million Muslims in France. In the first year of the 21st century an estimated half-million illegal immigrants entered Europe.

I have nothing against freedom of religion but I believe more in the
principle of reciprocity. It seems to me that the attitude of us Europeans is that of a one way street wherein we, for the sake of freedom, are sacrificing our existence in order to accommodate the existence of others. I cannot understand how we can allow the removal of the crucifix from our school rooms without imposing that the same freedom be given to Christians in the Muslim states.

We all know what goes on in the Muslin states: they have their own religion and as often happens, religion is mixed with traditions and culture. I have a friend from Jordan who is Catholic and who tells me how discriminated she is at work because she is a Catholic; and Jordan is supposed to very democratic compared to the other Muslim states. In the Maldives, only the Muslim religion is allowed. When we visit their country, we never question their way of life and their religion (and we are not allowed to do so, either), and we have no right to do so either because we are not part of that system.

It is a fact that Muslims have complete freedom of religion in very non-Muslim country in the world.
The Muslims are free to build their mosques, they are free to promote in every country in the world. It does not work like that with non-Muslims. Non-Muslims are not free to practise their religion freely in any Muslim country in the world; non-Muslims are not allowed to promote their religion. Non-Muslims cannot build their temples and churches in any Muslim country. There is no freedom of religion and that is why I believe that Muslims should grant other religions the same rights as otherwise how can they be taken seriously when they preach that Islam teaches tolerance and respect for fellow human being?

It is a fact that for Muslims there is no separation between Church and State and the Texas tragedy last week came as no surprise, because whatever nationality, their loyalty remains to their religion above that of the state. I am not saying that this is not right, but that this is a reality that we must address.

I am sorry to say that the European Union is doing nothing in this regard except promoting birth control, higher taxes and more incentives for the people to go and work than to stay at home and raise a family. The EU is more focused on the rights of non-Europeans than on the rights of the Europeans; on the obligations and duties of the Europeans than on those of the non-Europeans. No wonder that little by little we are becoming aliens in our own homes.

The intention of this article is not to raise a crusade between one religion and another, but to raise a crusade for the safeguarding of our Christian roots. You can laugh as much as you like but I for one starting to take the Bible more seriously because I am honestly afraid that by the age of 90, (God be willing), I still want to be free to practise my religion.

Being Muslim, Chrisitan, Hindu, whatever is irrelevant: what is relevant is that the principal of reciprocity must be adopted in cases involving decisions which tend to disrupt the whole fabric of the traditions and culture of that society.

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