German Catholic leader criticizes Islamic treatment of Christians

Dec 20, 2009, 15:28 GMT

Cologne, Germany - One of Germany's most senior Catholic leaders, Cardinal Joachim Meisner, criticized on Sunday what he described as restrictions on Christians in Islamic nations.

In an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio, Meisner, who is archbishop of Cologne, charged that this led to 'an aversion against Muslims' among Germans.

The often outspoken cleric said he had been campaigning for the past two years for the Church of St Paul in Tarsus, Turkey to be permanently opened for worship by any Christian.

The Turkish government which treats the early medieval church at Paul's birthplace as a museum granted access to Christian groups from mid 2008 to mid 2009 to use it, but restrictions are back in force.

'It's a battle that is pointless. And then you get the feeling, this just is not right. And that is one of the reasons for all this aversion towards our Muslim fellow citizens,' Meisner said.

'In Muslim countries, we are not allowed to develop as Christians,' said Meisner, who also charged that Qatar had allowed a church to be built five years ago for its 100,000 Christian foreign workers, 'but with no steeple, no bell and no cross on it.'

Meisner said he was not arguing for similar, tit-for-tat treatment toward Muslims by Germany, but added that he believed that if Germans were asked whether to ban minarets, they would vote as the Swiss did recently for such a ban.

'I am absolutely behind freedom of religion, and Muslims do have the right to practice their religion and to build mosques,' he said.