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Protestors in Germany harass 15,000 strong Christian youth festival

In what has been described as a blatant act of "Christianophobia," a group of protestors physically and verbally assaulted some of the 15 thousand Christians peacefully gathered for the April 30 opening day of the Christival German youth festival, reports Michael Baggot, LifeSiteNews.com.

About 450 gathered into a No Christival group protest procession only hundreds of meters from the Christian youth event, reported christianophobia.eu. About 100 of the self-described "antisexist alliance" protestors broke down barricades, while other No Christival members set off fireworks.

German chants of "No God, no state, no patriarchy", "Masturbation instead of evangelization," and "Never again Jesus" filled the air together with speaker announcements that compared the gathered Christians to Nazis.

No Christival flyers also accused the hosts of Christival of holding "extreme conservative and right wing world views that are characterized by literal bible interpretation, homophobia and sexism".

Attacks on Christians continued throughout the festival that concluded May 4.

On the evening of May 1, the Christival website was hacked to read "Hey you. Christival.de is temporary closed. We know that the belief in God is curable. In the past, we were very religious. Now it is gone."

Later in the week, same-sex couples began ostentatiously kissing while renowned Christian speaker Ulrich Parzany attempted to give his lecture at St. Martini church.

On May 3, protestors carried a "My uterus is mine only" sign onto the Christival event grounds. They then violently pushed through the doors meant to ban the demonstrators from festival grounds.

Christival hosts also reported that some Christians were mobbed and had beer bottles thrown at them.

The Christival events are but one of a series of attacks on Christians that Christianophobia.eu has recently reported. Christianophobia is an organization that calls attention to discrimination against Christians in Europe and encourages reader to actively response to such injustices.

"Christianophobia consists of the terms Christian and phobos which means '(irrational) fear'. The term means therefore irrational fear or hatred of Christians, or Christianity in general," explains the Christianophobia.eu site.

"It consists of a negative categorical bias against Christians - both individually and collectively -, against Christianity as a whole, or positions intrinsically part of the Christian faith. Such prejudice is a form of religious intolerance; it may be simply a mental or emotional attitude, or it may lead to stereotyping, discrimination, or even - in extreme cases - to persecution of Christians."

"The attitude in Europe is becoming very hostile. We work on the issue and publish these cases in order to alert. Our work is not about self-pity. It is about solutions which must include the political level," Christianophobia.eu founder Gudrun Kugler told ZENIT.org in January.

The term "Christianophobia" was coined by Jewish legal scholar Joseph Weiler. The United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva already uses the term alongside the terms "anti-Semitism" and "Islamophobia." Vatican officials such as Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for relations with states, has supported the more widespread use of the term.

[05/26/2008]

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