Afghanistan’s Christians ‘completely ignored’ in European Parliament resolution

The European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Nov. 25, 2014. Credit: Alan Holdren/CNA. / null

Strasbourg, France, Sep 17, 2021 / 12:00 pm (CNA).

A member of the European Parliament said on Thursday that the EU’s law-making body “completely ignored” the plight of Afghanistan’s Christian minority in a recent resolution.

Carlo Fidanza, the co-chair of the parliament’s Intergroup on Freedom of Religion and Belief, said that the resolution adopted on Sept. 16 showed Europe’s general indifference to Christians.

He said: “This resolution demonstrates once again the guilty lack of attention by Europe, not only to Afghan Christians -- who are completely ignored by the text -- but to Christians in general.”

The Italian politician recalled that the European Parliament rebuffed a proposal in June for an annual observance raising awareness about religious liberty.

“As I have already said on the rejection of the establishment of a European Day for Religious Freedom, it is worrying that it is now considered normal that a silence falls upon the tragedy faced by persecuted Christians,” he said.

The resolution, passed in Strasbourg, France, said that the European Parliament was “appalled” by reports of the Taliban’s actions against “women and girls, human rights defenders, LGBTI+ people, religious and ethnic minorities, journalists, writers, academics and artists.”

The resolution mentioned the Shia Hazaras as an example of a persecuted minority, but it did not specifically refer to the country’s Christians.

Fidanza, an MEP for North-West Italy, expressed concern that failing to highlight faith could “lead politics to be timid towards regimes that violate religious freedom on a daily basis.”