This year saw the destruction of some of the oldest continuous Christian communities in the Middle East.
As predominantly Christian Europe braces itself to accommodate millions of new Muslim migrants this year alone, Christianity takes its last breath in region where it was first revealed to the world. Israel remains the only glaring exception to this dismal rule.
The armed war against Christians is accompanied by a cultural war on Christmas. This year, Muslim countries like Somalia, Tajikistan and Brunei joined the long list of Islamic nations banning the Christian festival — in many cases making Christmas celebrations even in private settings a punishable offence.
With the rising tide Islamist terror, even in the Christian heartland of Europe the Christmas is now under siege.
British newspaper The Guardian wrote, “[Christmas markets in Germany] a symbol of an ancient idyll – but this year armed police are out in force to counter the threat of violence.” Just like President Obama, the liberal British newspaper won’t name the source of this ‘violent threat’ and you would have to read the article to the end to find out that local German “al-Qaida sympathisers” calling themselves “Mujahideen” are behind these “concrete threats.”
The newspaper further describes the beefed up security measures at the Christmas markets:
Suitcases and rucksacks have been banned from Germany’s largest winter ritual and vendors have been warned to look out for anything suspicious. Plain-cloths police are said to be mingling with the crowds.
Wall Street Journals also has a similar report:
In Nuremberg [Germany], home to one of the best-known Christmas markets that attracts many tourists from the U.S. and other European countries, police will be present in higher numbers, according to a police spokesman. In Berlin, the popular Christmas market on the Gendarmenmarkt, one of the few closed-off markets, decided to ban people from bringing suitcases or large backpacks and will conduct checks at its entrance.
But no other city in Europe has been hit worst than the city of Paris. A city still recovering from last month’s Islamist terror attack that killed 130 people. The city has returned to normalcy despite heavy security presence, but the Christmas spirit has failed to recover this year. Financial Times writes:
The Paris Christmas market on the Champs Elysées has all a tourist could hope for. There are snails in garlic butter, wild boar pâté, mulled wine and local cheeses, all set to a soundtrack of jaunty Georges Brassens songs.The problem is that more than a month after the terrorist attacks in Paris that left 130 dead and a nation in shock, there are few there to enjoy it. (…)Hotel occupancy fell 30 percentage points after the attacks, according to the mayor’s office, making hotels only half-full for many weeks. New reservation rates are still down 15 per cent.The number of new flight bookings to Paris are down 30 per cent as well, according to figures from analytics group ForwardKeys, with countries such as Japan and Brazil among the most affected. (…)At the sharp end of this are restaurants and clubs, where sales are down 30-40 per cent compared with the same period last year.
But in the face naked Islamist aggression, European liberals have rolled out a brilliant strategy — it’s called pre-emptive surrender.
Not only schools, hostels or gymnasiums, but even already dwindling active churches in Germany are being turned into shelter for predominantly Muslim migrants. Public schools have renamed the traditional Saint Martin’s day celebrations to “Festival of Light and Lanterns”, so as not to ‘offend’ the newly arriving Muslim migrants to Germany. First there were fictional novels or newspaper cartoons that were deemed offensive for Muslims, now its Santa and Easter Bunny.
No one can question the spirit of generosity and accommodation that Christians across Europe have shown towards Muslim migrants in recent decades. But thousands of young European-born Muslims joining the ranks of Islamic State is a resounding slap on the face of this unreciprocated spirit of benevolence. As Canadian commentator Mark Steyn puts it, instead of taking on the the Islamist aggression — Europe has chosen to play the “battered wife in denial.”
Video: France tightens security around Churches ahead of Christmas
(Cover image courtesy EuroNews, YouTube screenshot) (The author is an Indian journalist based in Europe)
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