During his visit to Hungary, Eli Cohen also participated in the unveiling of the statue of Árpád Weisz, a Hungarian-born soccer player who coached Inter Milan and later Bologna before perishing in the Holocaust. The bronze statue was unveiled by Eli Cohen and Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, together with Sándor Csányi, the head of the Hungarian Football Association (MLSZ), and Giuseppe Saputo, the chairman of the Bologna football club.
Referring to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights’ (FRA) 2018 survey, Máthé raised attention to the fact that hostility, threats and psychical attacks against Jewish people are most commonly reported in France, which has the largest Jewish community in Europe. However, despite having a significantly smaller Jewish population, Sweden is also considered an unsafe place for Jewish people. As opposed to that, Hungary, with a Jewish community almost three times larger than that of Sweden, records far fewer incidents—the number is between five to eight times lower compared to the Scandinavian country.
As a closing thought of his lecture, Dr Peterson explained that a central unifying spirit connects the biblical stories he had cited, and if we get into a proper relationship and alliance with this spirit, it will carry us through even the most horrible situations. He highlighted that the complete realisation and fulfilment of this can be seen in the New Testament.
Although today violence is no longer the primary form of persecution Christians face in the country, they still endure other serious forms of discrimination. Among the most pressing issues are economic problems, incompetent legislation by the government and conflicts from inter-communal relations, which they suffer from not just because of their faith, but also because they are an ethnic minority in the Kurdish region.
One hundred fifty-five people from Hungary travelled to Poland to attend the International March of the Living on 18 April, where nearly 10,000 participants from 54 countries marched the 3 km route between the Auschwitz I and Auschwitz-Birkenau lagers. The march was held on Yom HaShoah, which is Israel’s National Day of Mourning for the victims of the Holocaust.
The Hungary Helps Programme, however, does not only help persecuted Christians, but provides effective support in crisis areas and areas that are hit by man-made or natural disasters as well. Since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, Hungary has provided 130 billion forints (335.6 million euros) in aid to the victims of the war in Ukraine. Hungary also sent ten tons of relief supplies to Turkey immediately after the deadly earthquakes on 6 February and 50 million forints (132,000 euros) to Syria.
‘Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Christians thrive in every aspect of life and enjoy equal rights. If you look at other Muslim countries in the Middle East or Africa, it can be seen how Christians are persecuted and massacred on a monthly basis. I’m always shocked that the Christian leadership around the world and the mainstream media are so silent about the sufferings of persecuted Christians, but when it comes to Palestinians blaming Israel for Christian persecution, the whole world is screaming.’
‘While, as we can see, more and more Western governments support the over-sexualisation of children with LGTBQ programmes, Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga filed a counterclaim with the Court of Justice of the European Union in favour of the Hungarian Child Protection Act. She also highlighted in her Facebook post that Hungary will continue to “stand by its conviction and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union that education is a national competence and that parents have the right to decide on the upbringing of their children.”‘
David Curry has been the CEO of the most well-known international ministry, Open Doors USA, for ten years. The organisation recently changed its name to Global Christian Relief to achieve better cooperation between Christian denominations and NGO networks, and thus to help persecuted Christians more efficiently.
According to Juliana Taimoorazy, the future of Assyrian Iraqi Christians is worrisome. She underscored that the situation could improve only if their religious leaders would start educating Muslim communities and if a steadfast partnership with different Islamic organisations would come to life.
In a recent discussion with British-born demographer and documentary filmmaker Stephen J. Shaw, Peterson listed Hungarian family-supporting policies as the only known example of a government-issued incentive programme that has measurably slowed population decline.
The research conducted by the Danube Institute contradicts the image of an anti-Semitic Hungary painted by many Western mainstream media outlets. Thanks to the government’s zero tolerance policy, public anti-Semitic expressions are no longer tolerated and Jewish people can freely walk in the streets and worship in synagogues without having to rely on heavy security presence.
‘Perhaps the Hungarians are the only nation in Europe able to feel and understand what we in Israel go through when we are exposed to unceasing criticism, while upholding Middle East’s only liberal democracy.’
‘After Israel left Gaza, I was hoping that they would take what we left there, and turn that area into a paradise. It could have been the Singapore of the Middle East with beautiful beaches. We left many hothouses and other buildings, and they destroyed it all. They took the pipes left from the irrigation, turned them into rockets, and launched them back at us.’
As these trends reach more and more countries, it is quite naïve to think that there won’t be more and more people trying to normalise and eventually legalise paedophilia as a sexual identity.
As opposed to his homeland, Canada, where Dr Jordan Peterson is being threatened with the withdrawal of his licence, Hungarian President Katalin Novák awarded him with the civilian class of the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary last June.
‘The Hungarian population strongly supports the State of Israel, an unambiguously national-religious state like Hungary, which believes in innovation, a strong military and the ability to jointly maintain the existing international structure.’
The participants of the 2022 Christian Media Summit caught a glimpse of the everyday lives of Israelis who face the constant threat of terrorist attacks with resilience and unbroken optimism.
‘There is no justification for the State Department’s failure to recognize Nigeria or India as egregious violators of religious freedom, as they each clearly meet the legal standards for designation as CPCs.’
‘It is a legitimate expectation that 2023 will be another successful year in Hungarian-Israeli relations.’
The CMS is an annual event that brings together 150 top-tier Christian news executives and public opinion leaders worldwide for dialogue on key topics relevant to Israel and the Christian world. It aims to achieve a better understanding and strengthen the friendship and alliance between the State of Israel and Christians around the world.
As one of the thirty member states that voted against the proposal, Hungary made it clear that the 75th Independence Day of the Jewish State should be celebrated and not mourned as a ‘disaster’.
If you go to Israel and say that you’re from Hungary, most Israelis will smile at you, hug you and shake your hand. We perceive Hungary as a very close ally.
At the beginning of September, the Danube Institute held a conference titled ‘Christians, Violence and the Middle East’. One of the keynote speakers of the conference was Juliana Taimoorazy, who spoke about the plight of Christians in her homeland, Iran and Iraq, through her personal story.
At the end of April, a Danube Institute research group completed their first fieldwork trip to examine the unique situation in Poland, which has been included in their research as a case of internecine violence. Find out more about the situation of Christianity in Poland!
‘The pandemic reminded me of the isolation that persecuted Christians feel all the time. Therefore, I decided to write this book as a document of these people who in 100 years might be entirely eradicated from their homes.’
Biden administration not only forgot about persecuted Christian communities, but also denied the fact that there was religious persecution in Nigeria.
Joe Biden has still not raised awareness to Christian persecution. As Biden remains silent on this issue more and more American Christians urge the president to speak up and help Christians in need.
Hungary as a member state has the right to decide what it wants to teach in schools and how it defines family. It is alright for Hungary to say that ‘this is our politics and nobody is forced to live in Hungary’.
Instead of dealing with more serious issues, it seems like that the EU will not stop its fight against the Hungarian government until it surrenders to the ‘woke’ ideologies that have been permeating the functioning of the Union for several years.
Hungarian Conservative is a bimonthly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.