Hello, everyone, I am new here.
I am Greek, born and bred and Christian Orthodox. I live abroad now.
I think it is both a constitutional right for everyone in Greece and a Christian attitude for those who claim to be Christian to allow and help people practise their religion if by doing it, they do not show disrespect for anyone outside they faith- and yes, there are Muslims who practise with respect. I have lived in two countries outside Greece so far and it is frustrating not being able to worship one´s own religion due to lack of venues.
Muslims are Muslims because they are not because they see Athenians practising their faith in a less than adequate way, so laying judgement on fellow Christians here is a bit besides the point.
I am not going to be quoting every single one of you. I will only say immigration is a far more complicated issue, one with politic,social and economic aspects and their historic counterparts; as you may know I am sure, the third world does not come third only because it can´t run faster. In the past First World Christian countries have done their best to exploit some of these countries´natural wealth and human resources and contributed somewhat to a nowadays well rooted corruption and decadence - not exclusively. As simplistic and naive as this may sound for some of you, I still wonder how you would feel if,for example, forced to leave your Christian homeland to seek a better life in a neighbouring rich Muslim one for lack of other option, you were forced to stay in your boat - wife and kids included - and get back to wherever you came from, simply for being Christian. Prohibition of Muslim immigration was something someone suggested, wasn´t it? Or is the practice of some Muslim countries - banning worship of other religions- so dear to some? If I had to live in a Muslim culture I would still like to practise my religion, I guess I have as much a right, why can´t Muslims do that in Ahens?
And as for Latin American immigrants, they are much closer in culture, religion and geographically to Spain and the U.S. As far as Spain is concerned, it happens to have a very strong economy and strong ties with Central and South America. So much since a lot of the returning immigrants´families came originally from Spain. I cannot imagine why these people would pick a country much smaller than their own or Spain, with a different language, culture and religion altogether that is also much farther and even more expensive to live in, such as Greece.
We do not choose to have immigrants in Greece for need of cheap labour although it does translate into this as well. It may have to do something with "Love thy neighbour", have you thought about this? I do not know what people have in their hearts when they worship, but Greeks apart from Christian, have been slaves, refugees and immigrants ( as well as in other, more prestigious conditions) so I hope to God,we will not be the one to turn people away when they seek refuge, irrespective of their personal condition.Thus,although some of us, may in the eyes of other Christian brothers, be lacking a Christian way of life, I hope that as humans, we preserve the Law of God in our hearts (a law that exist in most people´s hearts), that of doing to people what people want to do to us, that of loving our enemies, that of honour and the one I mentioned in the beginning. I do not want to sound any more polemic or harsh than I may have already, it would undermine my Christian predisposition, so I´ll leave it at that. In God I trust that he may have mercy on me and show me the error of my ways where they exist.
