Christian Refugee: “Germany is like Iran”

An original translation by Nash Montana with much thanks

From this German news site

inside of Priest Martens’ Trinity church in Berlin-Steglitz, a refuge for many Christian refugees, picture taken by Gottfried Martens.

Christian refugees are harassed and threatened in asylum camps. Many of them are therefore very disappointed of Germany, one man tried to kill himself. A Berlin priest wants to help, but the authorities walls up.

Elia Ali Reza fled to Germany, because when he converted to Christianity in his home country, he was threatened with death. Arriving in Germany, he had to flee again – from one refugee camp in Brandenburg, for fear of muslim co-residents. “I came to Germany because it is a Christian country”, he said on Wednesday evening at STERN TV. “But after my experiences in the asylum camp I feel like I am back in Iran.” All non muslims are reviled, berated and ‘impure’ in Iran, he says.

Joshua Paul from Pakistan has similar experiences. He had to flee, because as a son to a Christian pastor in his muslim country, he faced violence and death threats. The 24-year old lives in a refugee home in Hennigsdorf and he does not feel safe among all the muslim residents. He says, muslims per say are not the problem, there are some peaceful ones. “But those, that are here, they are very discriminating”, he laments. He says he thought that Germany was a Christian country, that helps Christians and that all people would be treated equally.

The Berlin Priest Gottfried Martens knows that these stories are not single incidents. He offers Christian refugees to sleep in his church, when they can’t stay at their respective refugee camps anymore. “In many camps they live after the shariah, and when you refuse to adjust to that, you will have problems”, he explains. Martens has tried multiple times to get help from the camp organization for the Christian refugees – with very little success. Journalists from STERN TV did ask at the Henningsdorf Refugee camp leaders, if they know of violence against Christian refugees. The short answer: “After consulting with camp management, social workers and the responsible department for the accommodations of asylum seekers in the County of Oberhavel there is no knowledge of such incidents within the community camps.”

“More conservative muslims than I can believe.”

In the STERN TV Studio conversation, moderator Steffen Hallaschka asked Martens, if muslims came to Germany whose cultural and moral concepts “aren’t compatible with ours” and if that’s why they do not want to adapt “this impression is one that has grown stronger in me, and it’s a lot stronger than I initially wanted to believe”, Martens says. “I had thought that at the beginning of this refugee wave, that a lot of the refugees were those that suffered under radical islam in their home countries, and that they would appreciate the fact that it’s different here.” But the percentage of “very conservative” muslims is extremely high among asylum seekers, a lot higher than he estimated. In comparison to previous years, the picture has changed drastically in refugee camps. To add insult to injury, Afghan or Iranian Christians have to wait three to four years until they can get recognition in Germany as citizens.

Besides Martens, other people in the STERN TV studio were the Rheinland-Pfalz CDU-boss Julia Klöckner, the female muslim journalist Khola Maryam Hübsch, and Wolfgang Bautz, the leader of the “Service for Migration, Integration and Tolerance” in the county of Brandenburg. Hübsch says that muslims who are prepared to use violence are ignorant of the koran and because they have no perspective they use religion to provoke. “That’s where we have to insert inter-religious dialogue”, she demands.

Bautz explains that conflicts within the asylum camps are in no way connected to “different interpretations of belief”. The real reason for these conflicts are the tight living quarters and past and present trauma from their home countries and from fleeing to Germany. But Martens retorted that this is not a case of ‘conflicts’, but a case of religious oppression – in a conflict there are two conflicting parties involved.

First the church choir, then suicide

Klöckner didn’t buy it either: Neither cramped living quarters nor any other circumstances justify violence, she made clear. Problematic views, opinions and cultures don’t change even when the living situation changes.

Priest Martens brought two examples from his every day experiences into the debate. In Brandenburg he just recently visited an afghan Family that had converted to Christianity. The Family doesn’t live in the refugee camp anymore, they now live in an apartment. “But they barely dare to go out in the street”, Martens reports, because the muslim Community at the refugee camp has designs on making their lives a living hell.

And right before his visit to STERN TV Martens was at the hospital visiting a young man who tried to take his own life because the muslims in his refugee camp kept harassing and bullying him. “He just couldn’t take it anymore”, Martens said. “The day before he was still singing in our church choir.”

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

5 Replies to “Christian Refugee: “Germany is like Iran””

    • Yes, I’ve been watching Webb’s progress this campaign season. I also like him for giving his support to American workers rather than immigrants as the rest of the Democratic party are doing. I’m an Independent who usu. votes Republican, but after looking at Webb’s incredible resume of accomplishments,am considering voting for him if I get the chance.

      • A Dem that is talking like you say has no chance of winning the primaries, the party bosses and the ultra rich socialists are donating their money to people who are way far to the left. Right now the Repubs look like they are going to nominate an outsider with no political experience. Look at how the outsiders are doing and how the true conservatives are doing and then look at how the establishment choices are falling in the polls.

        Also the far left took over the Dems in the 70s and haven’t lost control since, the so called moderates in their party are further to the left then the liberals in the Repubs.

  1. The plight of the Christian refugees is to be expected, the left hates Christianity and has been working to destroy it since around 1900, they have succeeded to a much larger extent in Europe then in the US. Personally I think the current crisis will probably bring about a Christian revival in Europe, one that will help it remain free.

    The religious wars are returning to haunt us God help us all.