Saudi Arabia and Human Rights

What Human Rights ???

EIGHT PROTESTANT LEADERS ARRESTED IN SAUDI ARABIA

based on reports By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service 

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA (ANS) - June 4, 2005 - A 45-year-old Indian national from the state of Tamil Nadu, and seven other Protestant leaders were arrested by the Muttawa, Saudi Arabia's ISLAMIC religious police, according to a May 31 AsiaNews.it report. The move follows the arrest of 40 Pakistani Christians who were worshiping at home on April 23.

AsiaNews sources in the country said that Vijay Kumar was taken in by police on May 28. His arrest came in the wake of that of another Indian, Samkutty Varghese, an Evangelical Christian who had entered the country on January 26 on a tourist visa.

The news service says relatives and friends in Riyadh have had no news about the fate of their loved ones, nor do they know where they are detained.

The Muttawa detained Varghese, who was waiting for his visa to be extended, on March 9. They found him in possession of a Hindi Bible and some phone numbers, which they used to carry out other arrests.

The religious police on May 28 raided a private prayer gathering of Protestant groups in the Batha area of the Saudi capital, the AsiaNews website said. 

Later at 8 p.m. that day, the police arrived at Kumar's home. They interrogated him and his wife Christy Vijay Kumar till 3 a.m. and then took away all religious material found in the residence, the family computers and Kumar himself.

All those arrested belong to Assembly of God Evangelical groups.

Christy Vijay Kumar works as a catechist and normally teaches 40 Christian children from India and Muscat in her home.

Vijay Kumar has been in Saudi Arabia since 1994 working for Al Salam Aircraft and his home has been a gathering place for Christians since 2002. 

Kumar's Saudi colleagues consider him a good person and are worried for his fate. His employer has asked the police for information about his disappearance, thus far with little success.

In Saudi Arabia, freedom of expression is banned for all religions but Islam. All public expressions of other faiths (holding a Bible, wearing a cross or a rosary, praying) are outlawed. The religious police have a reputation for being uncompromising and violent, remorselessly enforcing the ban. 

In the last few years, international pressures - sometimes - have forced the Saudi royal family to relent and allow non-Muslims to practice their religion at least in the privacy of the home. Nevertheless, the Muttawa continues to arrest, imprison and torture people who practice another faith. 

Saudi Arabia's economy heavily depends on foreigners and although they are allowed to work, they are not allowed to profess their faith. Out of a population of some 21.6 million people, foreigners are around 8 million.

Muslims represent 97.3 percent of the total, whilst Christians constitute 3.7 per cent, almost all from India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Egypt. Catholics number some 900,000.

In its 2004 report, the US Commission on religious freedom around the world listed the Saudi kingdom was 'a country of particular concern.' 

Thursday, June 2, 2005 

SAUDI ARABIA LAUNCHES SEVERE CRACKDOWN ON CHRISTIANS

By Jeremy Reynalds
Special Correspondent for ASSIST News Service 

WASHINGTON, D.C. (ANS) -- There have been 46 confirmed arrests of Christians in Saudi Arabia, with some sources citing in excess of 100 Christians arrested.

That according to the Washington, D.C. based human rights organization International Christian Concern (ICC). 

During the last week, ICC reported, Saudi authorities engaged in a major crackdown involving a joint effort of both regular and “Muttawa” religious police (http://muttawa.blogspot.com/2004_04_01_muttawa_archive.html and http://www.undergroundusa.org/saudi_news.html). 

According to a news release from ICC, this was the largest crackdown in several decades in the religiously oppressive country. 

The crackdown came after allegations against the United States for desecrating the Qur'an at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. 

During the latest wave of arrests, ICC reported, Saudi authorities ransacked houses and destroyed any Bibles they found. The organization says it also learned that eight Christians were arrested, and documents naming other area Christians were seized. 

Last weekend, ICC reported, Chittirical John Thomas, an Indian national, was dragged from work in Riyadh by Saudi Muttawa authorities, taken to his home, and beaten in front of his maid and five- year-old son. The Muttawa gathered his Bible and other religious items, and took 37 year-old Thomas to a detention center. Thomas's wife, who is five months pregnant, has not heard from her husband since. 

In addition to Thomas, seven other Indian nationals were also woken, arrested and imprisoned for their Christian faith last Saturday. 

According to ICC, these arrests followed the detention of Samkutty Varghese outside his Bible study on March 22 2005. Varghese had the names and numbers of other Christians attending the same fellowship group. ICC said the organization has received credible reports that Varghese was beaten and sentenced to 10 months in prison.

ICC commented that “this pogrom-like sweeping of the Christian minority in Saudi Arabia ... shows deficient resolve in enforcing sanctions on ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ (CPC).” 

These are nations designated by then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell as having “particularly severe violations of religious freedom under the International Religious Freedom Act” 

( www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2003/18302.htm   ). 

A news release from ICC commented, “The inaction of the world's leader in promoting freedom is reprehensible, and risks breaching the line of irrelevance on matters of religious freedom and human rights. The United States and the broader international community need to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for egregious violations of religious freedom. This latest crackdown on Christians is inexcusable, and highlights the oppressive regime under which all religious minorities live and work in Saudi Arabia.” 

According to the same news release from ICC, the United States has allowed over two months after the deadline for implementing direct action against Saudi Arabia for the CPC status. Now, there are only 10 days left to act under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (other page on Saudi Arabia here). 

ICC is a Washington, D.C. based human rights organization that exists to help persecuted Christians worldwide.

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Tuesday, May 24, 2005 

CHRISTIAN HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGNERS CLAIM THAT SAUDIS SHRED BIBLES, YET LITTLE IS HEARD ABOUT THIS DISRESPECT TO GOD'S HOLY WORD

By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service 

SAUDI ARABIA (ANS) -- While emotions have been stirred in the Middle East over erroneous reports of the US military desecrating a copy of the Koran, little attention is paid to the disrespect given to copies of the Bible where the Word of God is not welcome.

Patrick Goodenough, CNSNews.com International Editor, in a May 19, 2005 story writes that Bibles found in the possession of visitors to Saudi Arabia are routinely confiscated by customs officials, and in some cases copies allegedly have been put through a paper shredder, according to religious rights campaigners.

Goodenough says: "Reports from the Islamic world of the abuse of Bibles and other items important to Christians emerge from time to time, but generally have little impact -- in contrast to the wave of Muslim anger sparked by a Newsweek report, since retracted, of Koran desecration by the U.S. military."

"The Muslims respect the Koran far more than Christians respect the Bible," says Danny Nalliah, a Sri Lankan-born evangelical pastor now based in Australia.

Goodenough says that during the 1990s, Nalliah spent two years in Saudi Arabia, where he was deeply involved with the underground church.

"It's a very well-known fact that if you have a Bible at customs when you enter the airport, and if they find the Bible, that the Bible is taken and put in the shredder," Nalliah said in an interview with Goodenough this week.

"If you have more than one Bible you will be taken into custody, and if you have a quantity of Bibles you will be given 70 lashes for sure -- you could even be executed," Nalliah said.

Nalliah had not himself seen a Bible being shredded, but said the practice was widely acknowledged among Christians in the kingdom.

Abuse of Christians and their symbols was not restricted to the destruction of Bibles, Nalliah added.

A friend of Nalliah's, a fellow Christian in Saudi Arabia, told Nalliah of witnessing a particularly unpleasant incident involving a Catholic nun.

Nalliah's friend had been in the transit lounge at the airport in Jeddah -- the gateway to Mecca, used by millions of Hajj pilgrims each year -- when a nun arrived at the customs desk.

"Some fool [travel agent] had put her on a transit flight in Jeddah. You don't do that to a Catholic nun, because she's going to be tormented," said Nalliah, adding: "They opened her bag, went through her prayer book, put the prayer book through the shredder...took the crucifix off her neck and smashed it, tormented her for many minutes."

Eventually another Muslim official objected to their conduct, came across and "rescued" her, pointing out to the customs officials that she was not entering the country but only in transit and would be leaving on the next plane, Goodenough quotes Nalliah as explaining.

Briefed beforehand about the risks, Nalliah said he did not carry a Bible when he arrived in the kingdom in 1995. Subsequently, however, he took possession of hundreds of Bibles that had been smuggled into Saudi Arabia to be used by believers there.

Nalliah said he had a close call one morning when armed members of the notorious Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice -- the religious police, or muttawa -- hammered at his front door at 1 a.m.

With 400 smuggled Bibles "sitting on the dining room table," Nalliah believed his life to be in serious danger. "That was a crime equal to rape, murder, armed robbery, and in Saudi Arabia you get the same punishment," he said -- the death penalty.

Nalliah said he had prayed earnestly and, in what he could only describe as a miracle, the men left without entering his home.

BIBLES CONSIDERED 'CONTRABAND'

Claims of Bible desecration in Saudi Arabia have been made by others, Goodenough says.

"One Christian recently reported that his personal Bible was put into a shredder once he entered customs," the late Nagi Kheir, spokesman for the American Coptic Association and a veteran campaigner for religious freedom in the Middle East, wrote in an article several years ago.

"Some Christians have reported that upon entering Saudi Arabia they have had their personal Bibles taken from them and placed into a paper shredder," the U.S.-based organization International Christian Concern said in a 2001 report.

Goodenough said that in its most recent report on religious freedom around the world, the State Department made no reference to Bible destruction, but said they were considered contraband.

"Customs officials routinely open mail and shipments to search for contraband, including...non-Muslim materials, such as Bibles and religious videotapes," the State Department report said. "Such materials are subject to confiscation, although rules appear to be applied arbitrarily."

Goodenough reports that in a 2003 report on Saudi Arabia, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent watchdog set up under the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, said: "Customs officials regularly confiscate Bibles and other religious material when Christian foreign workers arrive at the airport from their home countries initially or return from a vacation."

Goodenough's inquiries about the legality of Bibles and about the shredder claims, sent to the Saudi Embassy in Washington and the Saudi Information Ministry in Riyadh, were not answered by the time Goodenough's article went to press.

THE KORAN VS. THE BIBLE

After Nalliah left Saudi Arabia in 1997, he went to the U.S. and took part in the lobbying effort on Capitol Hill in support of what eventually became the International Religious Freedom Act, signed into law the following year, Goodenough wrote.

According to Goodenough, Nalliah heads an evangelical ministry in Australia, where late last year he and a colleague became the first people to be found guilty under a controversial state religious hatred law, after Muslims accused them of vilifying Islam during a post-9/11 seminar for Christians.

Nalliah said this week it did not surprise him that Muslims have reacted strongly to the claims that U.S. interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay base, where terrorism suspects are held, had thrown a Koran into the toilet, Goodenough said.

He writes that while Bible scholars say the Bible is written by men who were inspired by God, Muslims believe the Koran is "the copy of an original that is sitting in heaven, and has been sent down [by revelation to Mohammed]."

The book is seen as something sacred in itself, Nalliah explained, its words having come "directly from Allah. That's why they are so mad when they think something [unseemly] is being done to the Koran."

For instance, a Muslim will never keep a Koran at ground level, Nalliah told Goodenough.

The Pentagon says a January 2003 memo issued to U.S. personnel at Guantanamo Bay instructed them to "ensure that the Koran is not placed in offensive areas such as the floor, near the toilet or sink, near the feet, or dirty/wet areas," Goodenough reports.

He writes that even in Western societies, Nalliah noted, copies of Bibles could often be found in witness boxes of courts, ready for use when witnesses are sworn in. But the Koran will generally be kept in safe storage elsewhere, covered in cloth, to be brought in when required by a Muslim witness.

Nalliah said such reverence for the Koran stood in stark contrast to some Muslims' feelings about the Bible, however.

Nalliah also said the Koran was "confusing" on this score. In places (e.g.: sura 29:46-47) it appeared to urge Muslims to respect the Bible and those who believe in it; elsewhere it exhorts them to fight those who don't accept Islam until they pay tribute and accept inferior status (sura 9:29-31).

According to author and Islam scholar Robert Spencer, "a devout Muslim might very well mistreat a Bible, because traditional Islamic theology regards it as a corrupted and unreliable version of the genuine revelations that were given to Moses, Jesus, and other Prophets."

Spencer noted that in sura 9:30 the Koran says those who believe Jesus is the Son of God are under Allah's curse, Goodenough writes.

Spencer adds: "Throughout history, most Muslim theologians have held that the New Testament has been tampered with since it teaches that Jesus is the Son of God."

Goodenough says that some of the more notorious reported incidents of Muslims abusing Christian symbols implicate Palestinian radicals, including the trashing of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 2002; and the desecration of Maronite churches in Damour, Lebanon in 1976.

He adds that in the Damour episode, Yasser Arafat's PLO killed more than 500 of the Christian town's inhabitants before turning it into a stronghold, and used the interior of the St. Elias church for a shooting range, according to published accounts. 

THERE IS NOT ONE CHRISTIAN NATION ON EARTH WHERE MUSLIMS ARE PERSECUTED.

Yet in most nations where the majority of the population are Muslims, there is systematic government persecution of Christians.

"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."

--Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights--

Christian Conversions - According to the Bible - Can NEVER be forced.

Any Conversion to Christianity which would be "Forced" would NOT be recognized by God. It is in His True and KIND nature, that those who come to Him and choose to believe in Him, must come to Him OF THEIR OWN FREE WILL.



Don't Let anyone tell you that Christians support Forced Conversions.

That is False. True Christianity is NEVER forced.

Core Universal Rights

The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one's belief or religion
The right to join together and express one's belief