Intolerance and discrimination against Christians in Europe and North America

Nov 23, 2016 by Jill

by Massimo Introvign, MercatorNet:

There is a slippery slope from intolerance, to discrimination, to hate crimes and hate speech.

In 2011, I served as Representative of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) for combating racism, xenophobia, and intolerance and discrimination against Christians and members of other religions. There were two other representatives for combating anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. “Other religions” meant all religions other than Judaism and Islam.The OSCE is the largest organization dealing with international security and human rights, apart from the United Nations. Its participating states include Canada, the US, all countries in Europe and in the former USSR, including Central Asia nations like Mongolia.

At the concluding of an OSCE ministerial meeting in 2011 in Lithuania, Mgr. Dominique Mamberti, at that time Secretary for the Holy See’s Relations with the States, praised “the outstanding work that was done to combat intolerance against Christians”. He particularly referred to the conference we organized in Rome on September 12, 2011 on Hate Incidents and Crimes against Christians as “a successful and hopeful event”.

At the Rome conference, I introduced the “Rome Model”, predicting a slippery slope from intolerance to discrimination and from discrimination to hate crimes. The OSCE and other bodies quoted repeatedly the Rome Model in the years after the event.

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