Life as a non-Christian in Lithuania
VILNIUS - Historically, the Lithuanian nation was one of the last to be baptized. Officially, it
happened in 1387. Now Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, is the Catholic center of the country.
Not everyone living in Vilnius, however, is Catholic.
Those whose religion is not dominant in a country are called infidels, in this case they are
Muslims, Buddhists, Gentiles, and many others. There are not a lot of infidels in Lithuania, so
the public starts to ignore them or, even worse, to disrespect them. According to one portal of
human rights called “manoteises.lt”, Muslims, living in Lithuania, make up 0.1 percent of the
country's population; so many Lithuanians are unfamiliar with them. Unfortunately, almost half of
Lithuanians (45%) say they do not want to have a Muslim neighbor. Muslims in Lithuania are
the second most disliked ethnic-religious group after the Romas.
One person I interviewed was Rimantė Miškinytė, a Lithuanian Muslim living abroad for ten
years. She was not born in a Muslim family but converted to Islam. Rimantė told me that
stereotypes in Lithuania are abundant: Muslims in Lithuania receive more attention and more
stares: angry, blaming or just curious. Still, it is very unpleasant to be watched all the time.
Since Christians are the majority in Lithuania, it was interesting to find out if, in the case of
Rimantė, any kind of hostility was felt from Christians in particular. Rimantė said that there were
all kinds of attitudes - tolerant, loving, understanding and even negative.
I interviewed a Christian named Laurynas Jacevičius. He is a founder of apologetika.lt . He
states that he has noticed the manifestations of fear among his parents’ and grandparents’ age.
Laurynas thinks everyone has the right to profess their religion, but this does not mean that
Christians agree with what other religions or world-views publish. It is impossible to force a
person to convert to Christianity-this can never be done through violence, because faith in
Jesus is a relationship with God, and there is no relationship through violence. So, in essence,
the belief that Christians disrespect infidels is a myth. Older generations may have a negative
attitude towards infidels. Now let's talk about youngsters:
I did a poll on social media (Instagram) which showed that hostility towards the people of
Lithuania is decreasing with each generation: 95 of the 97 young people have nothing against
the infields.
VILNIUS - Historically, the Lithuanian nation was one of the last to be baptized. Officially, it
happened in 1387. Now Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, is the Catholic center of the country.
Not everyone living in Vilnius, however, is Catholic.
Those whose religion is not dominant in a country are called infidels, in this case they are
Muslims, Buddhists, Gentiles, and many others. There are not a lot of infidels in Lithuania, so
the public starts to ignore them or, even worse, to disrespect them. According to one portal of
human rights called “manoteises.lt”, Muslims, living in Lithuania, make up 0.1 percent of the
country's population; so many Lithuanians are unfamiliar with them. Unfortunately, almost half of
Lithuanians (45%) say they do not want to have a Muslim neighbor. Muslims in Lithuania are
the second most disliked ethnic-religious group after the Romas.
One person I interviewed was Rimantė Miškinytė, a Lithuanian Muslim living abroad for ten
years. She was not born in a Muslim family but converted to Islam. Rimantė told me that
stereotypes in Lithuania are abundant: Muslims in Lithuania receive more attention and more
stares: angry, blaming or just curious. Still, it is very unpleasant to be watched all the time.
Since Christians are the majority in Lithuania, it was interesting to find out if, in the case of
Rimantė, any kind of hostility was felt from Christians in particular. Rimantė said that there were
all kinds of attitudes - tolerant, loving, understanding and even negative.
I interviewed a Christian named Laurynas Jacevičius. He is a founder of apologetika.lt . He
states that he has noticed the manifestations of fear among his parents’ and grandparents’ age.
Laurynas thinks everyone has the right to profess their religion, but this does not mean that
Christians agree with what other religions or world-views publish. It is impossible to force a
person to convert to Christianity-this can never be done through violence, because faith in
Jesus is a relationship with God, and there is no relationship through violence. So, in essence,
the belief that Christians disrespect infidels is a myth. Older generations may have a negative
attitude towards infidels. Now let's talk about youngsters:
I did a poll on social media (Instagram) which showed that hostility towards the people of
Lithuania is decreasing with each generation: 95 of the 97 young people have nothing against
the infields.