Saudi defense minister says churches will never be allowed in Saudi Arabia
Author: Associated Press
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: March 12, 2003
Saudi Arabia, as the birthplace of Islam, will not allow churches to be built on its land regardless of the outcry from "fanatics," according to Defense Minister Prince Sultan.
"This country was the launch pad for the prophecy and the message, and nothing can contradict this, even if we lose our necks," Sultan told reporters on Saturday. His comments were published by Saudi newspapers and confirmed by several journalists who attended the press conference.
"Those who talked (about churches in Saudi Arabia) are church people and they are, unfortunately, fanatics," Sultan said, according to Monday's Okaz daily newspaper. "We are not against religions at all ... but there are no churches - not in the past, the present or future, and I am saying this and I am responsible for what I say. Whoever said this must shut up and be ashamed." Officials at the Defence Ministry in Riyadh would not comment on the remarks.
On Thursday, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent federal agency, complained that a new State Department list of countries that severely limit religious freedom omits several that deserve censure, including US ally Saudi Arabia. The commission's annual reports say that religious freedom "does not exist" in the Gulf Kingdom.
Islam is the only accepted religion in Saudi Arabia, home to the faith's holiest shrines in Mecca and Medina. "The whole world knows the kingdom and its friendship and loyalty and sincerity in its religion," he said.
Sultan said that foreigners have been allowed to worship freely in their homes since they began arriving in Saudi Arabia in 1951. But permitting a church in the country "would affect Islam and all Muslims," he reportedly said.
http://www.hvk.org/articles/0303/179.htmlThe last sentence of the article is so telling, and having known many a man and women living in the house of sand, thechurch thing, and the religious police were just open examples of the repression of freedom as we and the founding fathers understood it. The entire nation of islam is headed for the fall it must take for truth to even begin to have influence or sway among its peoples. Great find.
The culture of Islam is the culture on intolerance, violence, murder and assassination. That's what's already on the record. Can we anticipate a change? Not hardly. This issue in the mid east is the start of a religious war long planned for by the Islamists and ignored by western leaders. The true "holy war" is just beginning, and unfortunately we will see millions of lives lost as a result. The American politician tends to think that all countries are basically secular, when in fact that's simply not true. Islamists tend to believe that they can exploit their own people using God as their instrument. They are successful because of the ignorance of their clientele and the poverty that surrounds them.