A majority discriminated against?

Sometimes I get asked, how can a majority be discriminated against? Well, it is not the nominal Christian who is fully aligned to society’s mainstream, who suffers discrimination. It is those to strive to live according to the high ethical demands of Christianity, who experience a clash. Those are not the majority. And even if they were: History has shown that a leading minority can discriminate against a peaceful majority, as we saw in the striking example of apartheid.Where do we go from here? OSCE’s Parliamentary Assembly recommended in its Resolution on Combating Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in the OSCE area, adopted in Belgrade in July 2011: that a “public debate on intolerance and discrimination against Christians be initiated and that the right of Christians to participate fully in public life be ensured” (12); that “legislation in the participating States, including labour law, equality law, laws on freedom of expression and assembly, and laws related to religious communities and right of conscientious objection be assessed” “in view of discrimination and intolerance against Christians”, (13); and it “encourages the media not to spread prejudices against Christians and to combat negative stereotyping” (15). The PACE of the Council of Europe demanded just a few days ago almost unanimously to (in Resolution 1928): “accommodate religious beliefs in the public sphere”, “ensure the right to well-defined conscientious objection in relation to morally sensitive matters”, “respect the right of parents to ensure education and teaching in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions”; “change their legal regulations whenever these go against the freedom of association for groups (including churches)”. Literally corresponding to the Edict of Milan, the Council of Europe “urges member States where the restitution of church property is not yet concluded, to speed up this process and finish it in the short or medium term”. Let’s hope it won’t take 1700 years.I think that Europe is ready for honest “reasonable accommodation” when it comes to the clash between people of faith and a mainstream which seems to be at unease with religion. I ask you to be weary of horizontal equal treatment legislation: Such policies can inflict serious dilemmas on Christians. I recommend to participating states to combat underreporting by collecting disaggregated data on hate crimes against Christians. In some countries, vandalism against a Christian site is only listed as vandalism against a public building. I recommend to OSCE to develop materials on how to combat intolerance against Christians and to disseminate this through the OSCE region. Combating persecution of Christians outside the OSCE area must become a priority of the foreign secretaries of participating states in their foreign policy.