State secretary Azbej talks about Christian persecution in Europe

The law on the Hungary Helps humanitarian aid programme has been amended to allow broader Hungarian contribution in economic development and peace-making as of 1 January, the foreign ministry’s state secretary overseeing the scheme told public broadcaster M1 on Wednesday.

“The amendment allows Hungary to strengthen its role and better enforce solidarity with Christian communities as well as to represent the concept that help must be provided where the problems are,” Tristan Azbej said.

He said Christianity had become the most persecuted religion in the world, with some 5,000 followers murdered each year. Around 80 percent of the attacks occur in Nigeria, Azbej said, noting that “Jihadist, Islamist tribes” had mounted attacks on 20 Chirstian settlements and killed some 200 Christians around Christmas.

The state secretary said that the few reports covering the event in the western press had presented it “as an attack by shepherd tribes against farming villages”. “They failed to mention that behind the attacks were according to information Jihadist tribes trained and armed by the Al-Kaida Islamist terror organisation,” he added.

“It is important to break the silence, the disinterest and the denial and to say out loud that this is Christian persecution,” said Azbej, cautioning that “Islamist terrorism is now present in Europe”.

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