At the recent Peace of Westphalia conference in Münster, the Hungarian foreign minister said the Abraham Accords should serve as an example for resolving other similar conflicts around the world, adding that ‘even though the Middle East seems to be far away in a geographical sense, we all know that whatever happens in the Middle East, it has a direct influence on Europe.’

The Hungarian Jewish leaders and the Israeli Prime Minister discussed issues of Jewish communal life in Hungary and the events that may accompany the possible relocation of the Hungarian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.  With the potential move of the Hungarian mission to Jerusalem Hungary would become the first EU country to recognize that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital.

According to the 2023 World Watch List compiled by Open Doors, Pakistan is the seventh most dangerous country for Christians in the world. There are around 4.2 million Christians in Pakistan—only 1.8 per cent of the country’s population of more than 229 million people. Pakistani Christians are considered second-class citizens and are discriminated against in every public and private life aspect.

On 23 August, the Ontario Divisional Court dismissed Dr Peterson’s legal complaint against the College of Psychologists of Ontario; therefore, he is forced to comply with the demands of the Ontario College of Psychologists (OCP), which includes going through a so-called ‘specified continuing education or remedial program.’ In a Fox News interview, the famous clinical psychologist recently said that he will comply with the order but will publicize his entire experience so the public could ‘decide for themselves’ about it.

The roots of Christianity in Egypt can be traced back almost two millennia. Coptic Christians, who have their own distinct culture and language, have been living in the country since before the arrival of Muslim Arabs. For the most part, Muslims and Christians coexisted peacefully in Egypt until the mid-twentieth century, when things turned for the worse, due to growing radical Islamism and anti-Christian sentiments.

In the latest episodes of the Reflections from Budapest podcast, Director of the Middle East Action Team at the Religious Freedom Institute Jeremy P. Barker explained that their work aims to promote religious freedom rights for everyone everywhere, recognising and hoping that includes even the smallest and most persecuted religious minorities, whether that’s Christians or Yazidis in the Middle East, or Uyghurs in China and others.

As British MP Ian Paisley Jr phrased it, ‘In recent decades, a new language and culture, foreign to the principles and freedoms that have characterised our shared values for generations, have been thrust upon us. The language contains familiar words but with new, enforced meanings: we are under pressure to assimilate new definitions of concepts like “tolerance”, “diversity” and “progressiveness” when it comes to free speech and dissenting opinions.’

In her address marking Roma Holocaust Memorial Day, Fidesz MEP Livia Járóka said: ‘Almost 80 years later, it is still clear that what happened at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp was genocide and a series of crimes against humanity in which innocent European citizens were exterminated on the basis of an exclusionary ideology whose only purpose was organised destruction.’

The ongoing conflict has seen the direct targeting of religious symbols, places of worship and refuge as more than 250 churches of different denominations have been burned down or damaged across the state.  Since the clashes began, 180 people were killed, thousands have been injured, more than 60,000 have been displaced, and more than 12,000 have fled to the neighbouring Mizoram state.

The root cause of the riots result from the French state having been unable to eliminate social inequalities and ethnic differences for decades, the panellists at a Migration Research Institute discussion agreed.

A new photo and video exhibition titled Am I My Brother’s Keeper, curated by Yitzhak Mais, a prominent Israeli historian and former director of Yad Vashem’s historical museum, captures the unique moments of international cooperation to help Ukrainian Jewish refugees.

In 2017, the recent France riots were seemingly foreshadowed by the Foreign Minister of the UAE, who said: ‘There will come a day that we will see far more radical extremists and terrorists coming out of Europe because of lack of decision making, trying to be politically correct, or assuming that they know the Middle East and they know Islam and others far better than we do. I’m sorry, but that’s pure ignorance.’

Marcela Szymanski of the charity Aid to the Church in Need also welcomed the announcement. ‘It is absolutely extraordinary that six years after Hungary created a department in charge of persecuted Christians, another country finally joins them in acknowledging this reality. Not one single other nation with a Christian majority has dared to do so.’

Hazony suggests that significant change can be brought about in states with a Christian, Jewish, or conservative majority by creating a public culture similar to that of Israel or Hungary, where the focus is on living within the Biblical framework, building a better future, having children, teaching religion as a cultural inheritance, and serving in the military.

‘Many people have died, almost every family is mourning someone, and providing for the family is a daily struggle…we are talking about people who fled the horrors of war, their hometown, and even often their country, and yet we saw that even a gesture of help is sufficient to encourage them to accept the uncertainty and difficulties and return to their homeland. No sane person does this unless they believe in something, and these people believe in providence,’ State Secretary in Charge of Aid to Persecuted Christian Communities Tristan Azbej said in a recent interview.

According to a recent ADL survey, anti-Semitic incidents surged to historic levels in 2022 in the United States, with a total of 3,697 hate-related incidents reported across the country, which is a 36 per cent increase from 2021 and the highest level ever recorded in the group’s history since it began keeping records in 1979. Amidst a record high level of anti-Semitism, at this year’s Celebration of Israel Parade in New York City the importance of showing unity and support for Israel was highlighted.

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.’