Displaced Christians receive constant death threats from Muslims in European refugee camps

Christians who fled the violence in the Middle East say that they are facing death threats from Muslims in European refugee camps because of their faith.

In Germany, Christian converts at the refugee center in the town of Rotenburg an der Fulda said in a letter that they fled from Iran to escape persecution, but they still encounter the same threats from Afghan Muslims in the refugee camp, BosNewsLife reported.

"We, the Iranian refugees based in the city of Rotenburg, have fled from the Islamic Republic of Iran because we have been accused of being Christians and, therefore, have repeatedly been threatened by torture, imprisonment and the death penalty," the Christian converts wrote

"Here, where we have been accommodated presently, we are exposed to the same kinds of threats as before, this time at the hand of Afghan Muslims, and we fear for our lives," they continued.

In France, a Kurdish church leader said that he received death threats for converting to Christianity when he lived in the camps in northern France.

He was threatened by other Kurdish refugees in Calais when they saw him wearing a cross around his neck.

"The smugglers saw the cross round my neck saying: 'You are Kurdish and you are a Christian? Shame on you.' They said to me, 'We will tell the Algerians and Moroccans to kill you,'" the church leader narrated.

He recounted that his tent was burnt down when he lived at a camp just outside of Dunkirk. He explained that he came from a devout Muslim family in Kurdistan in Iraq and left the country after he received death threats when he converted to Christianity.

In October, Open Doors Germany reported that there had been at least 743 Christian refugees who were attacked by Muslims in German camps in 2016. The group noted that the latest figure is likely just the "tip of the iceberg" and asserted that there is likely a high number of unreported cases as well.

Open Doors called on German authorities to end the "integration experiments" at the expense of religious minorities in the asylum centers.