Three-fourths of Christian refugees in Germany persecuted by Muslim counterparts: Report

A nonprofit organization that has studied religious persecution around the globe for decades says Germany’s Christian refugees are under constant assault by their Muslim counterparts.

Open Doors, an organization that first started smuggling Bibles into Eastern Europe during the Cold War in 1955, conducted a survey that found 75 percent of Christian refugees in Germany claim to have been persecuted by fellow refugees and security staff.

Interviews conducted with 231 individuals over the past two months revealed the following:

• 86 refugees claim to have suffered bodily harm due to their faith;
• 96 refugees said they were the target of regular insults;
• 73 refugees said they or family members faced death threats;
• 80 percent of refugees pleaded for separate housing from Muslim counterparts; and
• Physical attacks against Christians take the form of “punches, spitting, pushing and sexual abuse.”

“These figures are just the tip of the iceberg,” the report said. “Many Christian refugees are frightened of facing more difficulties if they report incidents. For instance, there is genuine fear that the information could get into the wrong hands and cause danger for relatives still living in their home countries.”

Open Doors analyst Thomas Muller said it was disheartening for Christians to continue facing persecution after fleeing it in their homeland.

“It is clear that many Christian refugees — especially those who are converts to the Christian faith — live in fear of persecution from Muslim refugees who make up the majority of residents in the refugee hostels set up throughout Europe,” Mr. Muller said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was declared Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 2015 for welcoming 1.1 million refugees from the Middle East and North Africa into the country. Voters then punished her Christian Democrats, or CDU, in March’s region elections after a wave of crime linked to refugees captured global headlines.

Mrs. Merkel recently reached a deal with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that will ship all refugees from the Middle East who arrived after March 20 back to Turkey. The deal is predicated on sending Turkey almost $7 billion in assistance.