Posted on 10/11/2016 11:21:07 AM PDT by Gamecock
Forced to live in secret, Christians in Saudi Arabia are being supported in their faith online.
Islam is the state religion of Saudi Arabia, where the legal system is based on Sharia law. Courts regularly impose severe physical punishments, including the death penalty, for apostasy, and non-Muslim places of worship are prohibited.
According to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Saudi Arabia "remains uniquely repressive in the extent to which it restricts the public expression of any religion other than Islam".
The government prosecutes, imprisons and flogs individuals for dissent, apostasy, blasphemy and sorcery, and imposes "systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom".
It's not only religious people who are targeted. A law enacted in 2014 equates atheism with terrorism. The legislation bans "calling for atheist thought in any form, or calling into question the fundamentals of Islamic religion."
There are, however, some 1.4 million Christians living in the country. According to a study earlier this year, 4.4 per cent of Saudi Arabia's population identifies as Christian – up from less than 0.1. per cent (50 people) just over 100 years ago in 1910.
The majority of these Christians are expatriates or migrant workers, but according to persecution charity Open Doors, Saudi natives are also turning to Christianity.
The charity is supporting Mohammed (name changed), a secret believer who converted after learning about Christianity through an online discipleship course. He made contact with Christians in another Middle Eastern country, and then spent a week there – going to church for the first time, and attending Bible studies.
After a few days he was asked who Jesus was. "He is my Saviour, my God", was Mohammed's reply, and he was baptised, returning to Saudi Arabia with a Bible.
He knows no other Christians in his home country, but receives continued support online.
Saudi Arabia ranks 14th on Open Doors' list of countries where Christians are most persecuted. According to the USCIRF, the government has made "improvements in policies and practices related to freedom of religion or belief", but "it persists in restricting most forms of public religious expression inconsistent with its particular interpretation of Sunni Islam".
Human rights groups have heavily criticised the relationship the US and UK each hold with Saudi Arabia. Amnesty International last week called for an investigation after evidence emerged that illegal British-made cluster bombs had been used in Yemen by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Ping
Muslims converting to Christianity in Saudi Arabia = Freedom
Reporting it in a public format can only lead to a bloody crackdown by the mohmads.
Din’t worry. Hillary will stand up for them.
Anyone stupid enough to follow islam in the first place is questionable.
Muslims converting to Christianity in Saudi Arabia = death.
Sharia law requires death.
This is the Grand Mufti talking. It is not some bearded loon, or some fringe extremist, but rather the chief religious authority of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, home to the two holy mosques and so on. So this man speaks with authority. It is as if the Archbishop of Canterbury had spoken.
The Grand Mufti is appointed by the Saudi government.
How can a government outlaw someone being an atheist. If they don’t believe, they can’t force them to.
When that is all you know, following it is not ‘stupid’, it is strictly ‘all you know’. The same could well be said of all the ‘Christians’ who’s depth of ‘faith’ is attending church when the mood hits them, who do not read (or perhaps even own) a Bible, and who’s ‘faith’ is in their wealth. Of this unfortunately, I have seen too many examples, even from FReepers!
Yes, just like she did for Ambassador Stephens.
Voluntarily, yes.
But don't forget, they are raised and brainwashed into it from birth.
That makes it much harder.
They’re finding out what a fraud and delusion Islam is.
Wish them well, but know they will be martyred as “hudud” if found out. Take with rock-salt, any claims that there is a softening of religious tolerance in saudi. There is no tolerance in the book/commentaries/law. An apostate is marked for stretching or shortening.
This is not like Christian/Jew becoming Jew/Christian....un/covered to un/covered in church, swapping Sabbath between Saturday or Sunday, or Church vs. Temple. Turn away from islam, life is forfeit.
God’s speed
KYPD
And often tortured or killed if they try to leave Islam. Being born into a moslem famiy, or even worse, in a moslem country, is being born in a prison. Very difficult to escape and give up Islam.
BTTT!
Since WE, USA are the Saudi's biggest customer for petroleum and natural gas, it doesn't matter what the grand mufti says. PETROLEUM$$$ speak loudest.
Google: The Grand Mufti (Arabic: مفتي عام muftī ʿām , "general expounder" or كبير المفتين kabīr al-muftīn , "the great of expounders") is the highest official of religious law in a Sunni or Ibadi Muslim country.
The mufti is a religious official, nothing more. He's not on a par with the Catholic pope either. Islam doesn't have a "pope," and in that they are like the Protestants. And, OF COURSE, the mufti wants us Christians out of the KSA but he has NOTHING to say to it.
There are Christian men of the cloth in the KSA because I went to the Catholic Mass on Sunday mornings. There is a DAILY 9:00 A.M. Mass on the Saudi ARAMCO camps. Since these non-Muslim men of the cloth are not allowed into the KSA, the Saudi government and King call them "special teachers."
But then why would YOU know anything about living there? WE were there five years and so I DO know what I am talking about. You don't, so why bother to show the ENTIRE site your ignorance?
I've also kept in touch with my ARAMCO friends for years and years and years.
However, believe what you want. Not my concern.
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