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Religious discrimination of the refugee crisis is just inhumane. Two centre-right mayors infuriated the French government by saying that they will accept only Christian refugees, even as the first 200 Middle Eastern migrants have arrived in France from Germany. The French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, and the European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, has condemned the attempt to distinguish between Muslim and Christian refugees.

The “Christians only” comments by the mayors of the Roanne, in central France, and Belfort, near the Swiss border, has reflected the  widespread hostility in the acceptance of Syrian and other refugees in the right and far right of French politics. Several high-profile centre-right mayors have said that they are not interested to take any refugees at all.

Yves Nicolin, the mayor of Roanne, near Saint Etienne, has said that he feared that many of the Muslim refugees from Syria were “terrorists in disguise”. “I will accept refugees as long as they are Christians,” he said.

Damien Meslot, the mayor of Belfort in eastern France, has said that only Christians are welcome in his town “because they are the most persecuted”.

Slovakia said that it could only accept Christian refugees because it is a Christian country and “Muslims would not feel welcome”.

By Premji