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7 Christians Released in Saudi Arabia (but they must renounce their faith)
ewtn.com ^ | 6 26 05 | ewtn

Posted on 06/26/2005 1:10:39 AM PDT by freepatriot32

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, JUNE 9, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Seven Christians, arrested for their faith, were released on condition that they renounce religious practice, which they carried out privately in their homes.

Of the seven released Wednesday, six were part of a group of Protestants who were arrested May 28 in a raid by the muttawa, or religious police, in Riyadh.

The seventh Christian released is Indian evangelical Samkutty Varghese, who was jailed last March. Police used his address book to track down the other Christians.

Two other Christians are still being held for "further investigation," authorities said.

According to AsiaNews sources close to Indian citizen Vijay Kumar, 45, of Tamil Nadu, one of the freed prisoners, their release took place after having signed a document in which they renounced the prayer sessions and religious practices they had been carrying in their homes.

In Saudi Arabia, only Islam is allowed public expression.

Up to a few years ago, "a Christian was not even allowed to pray in private," said Father Bernardo Cervellera, director of AsiaNews.

He added that now, because of international pressure, the Saudi royal family is allowing non-Muslims to practice their religion in the privacy of their home.

"Unfortunately, however," the priest explained, "the police and a considerable part of Saudi society do not accept this liberalization, so Christians are arrested."


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Philosophy; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 7; arabia; christianpersacution; christianpersecution; christians; donutwatch; faith; saudi; saudiarabia
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1 posted on 06/26/2005 1:10:42 AM PDT by freepatriot32
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To: freepatriot32
the Saudis must have got all their police training in Philadelphia
2 posted on 06/26/2005 1:13:25 AM PDT by freepatriot32 (www.lp.org)
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To: Abram; Alexander Rubin; AlexandriaDuke; Annie03; Baby Bear; bassmaner; Bernard; BJClinton; ...
Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here
3 posted on 06/26/2005 1:16:59 AM PDT by freepatriot32 (www.lp.org)
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To: freepatriot32

I just wonder what the muslim world would say if the US arbitrarily arrested muslims for practicing their faith? Oh, never mind...


4 posted on 06/26/2005 1:25:48 AM PDT by Casloy
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Comment #5 Removed by Moderator

To: F15Eagle

USA has been very very foolish to allow any Muslims into the USA. The history of Muslims is to trample on the rights of every human being who does not believe the foolishness that they do.


6 posted on 06/26/2005 2:02:01 AM PDT by tessalu
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To: freepatriot32

It's just a matter of time before U.S. liberals get their way in this country.


7 posted on 06/26/2005 2:08:52 AM PDT by WellsFargo94 (graduation = freedom from liberal hell)
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To: freepatriot32

Well, they didn't flush their bibles down the toilet. And it's unlikely they were put in air conditioned cells, so we can assume they weren't tortured with temp variations.

Nothing for Durbin to get exercised about. They may have been jailed simply for being Christians, but Durbin and the MediaCrats know all about those "rabid" right wing Christian zealots and how annoying they can be.


8 posted on 06/26/2005 2:14:07 AM PDT by Timeout (Dean & the Bike Path Left: aging anti-warriors who use "summer" as a verb~~Jonah)
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To: freepatriot32

Lots of MSM coverage to follow.......NOT


9 posted on 06/26/2005 2:18:44 AM PDT by ncountylee (Dead terrorists smell like victory)
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To: Cornpone

Ping.


10 posted on 06/26/2005 3:08:43 AM PDT by Irish_Thatcherite (EU crisis? What EU crisis?)
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To: Casloy
I just wonder what the muslim world would say if the US arbitrarily arrested muslims for practicing their faith? Oh, never mind...

Yes! The PC movement applies to us and us alone. It judges us! Don't aim it the Muslim world, it doesn't work, AND it's not PC of you to try that.
The PC crowd denegrates our Judeo-Christian beliefs and hails those criminal beliefs of other societies as especially worthy.

Oh crap, like you said, never mind.....

11 posted on 06/26/2005 3:20:32 AM PDT by ThirstyMan
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To: freepatriot32

Where are the mass protests in Europe?


12 posted on 06/26/2005 3:27:28 AM PDT by Dallas59 (" I have a great team that is going to beat George W. Bush" John Kerry -2004)
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To: Casloy

Maybe they should make the boys at gitmo renounce their religion. Dick Durbin could then say "see I told you they were nazis there"


13 posted on 06/26/2005 3:44:34 AM PDT by daddyOwe ("a man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to leave alone")
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To: Dallas59
Why isn't Bush pushing for regime change in Saudi?
14 posted on 06/26/2005 3:46:03 AM PDT by toadthesecond
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To: freepatriot32

This from our "friends"?


15 posted on 06/26/2005 3:58:43 AM PDT by Aussie Dasher (The Great Ronald Reagan & John Paul II - Heaven's Dream Team!)
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To: freepatriot32
"a Christian was not even allowed to pray in private,"

How the would enforce this I will never know, when our relationship with God is indeed a personal and direct one, not needing an intermediary.
16 posted on 06/26/2005 4:09:52 AM PDT by Red Sea Swimmer (Tisha5765Bav)
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To: Red Sea Swimmer

Correction...

"they" not "the"


17 posted on 06/26/2005 4:10:33 AM PDT by Red Sea Swimmer (Tisha5765Bav)
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To: freepatriot32
Thomas Jefferson writing to Elbridge Gerry in march of 1801 ~ A coalition of sentiments is not for the interest of the printers. They, like the clergy, live by the zeal they can kindle, and the schisms they can create. It is contest of opinion in politics as well as religion which makes us take great interest in them, and bestow our money liberally on those who furnish food to our appetite. The mild and simple principles of the Christian philosophy would produce too much calm, too much regularity of good, to extract from its disciples a support from a numerous priesthood, were they not to sophisticate it, ramify it, split it into hairs, and twist its texts till they cover the divine morality of its author with mysteries, and require a priesthood to explain them. The Quakers seem to have discovered this. They have no priests, therefore no schisms. They judge of the text by the dictates of common sense and common morality. So the printers can never leave us in a state of perfect rest and union of opinion. They would be no longer useful, and would have to go to the plough.

Thomas Jefferson writing to Rev. Charles Clay in January of 1815 ~ I should as soon think of writing for the reformation of Bedlam, as of the world of religious sects. Of these there must be, at least, ten thousand, every individual of every one of which believes all wrong but his own. To under take to bring them all right, would be like undertaking, single-handed, to fell the forests of America. …I abuse the priests, indeed, who have so much abused the pure and holy doctrines of their Master, and who have laid me under no obligations of reticence as to the tricks of their trade. The genuine system of Jesus, and the artificial structures they have erected, to make them the instruments of wealth, power, and preeminence to themselves, are as distinct things in my view as light and darkness; and while I have classed them with soothsayers and necromancers, I place Him among the greatest reformers of morals, and scourges of priest-craft that have ever existed. They felt Him as such, and never rested until they had silenced Him by death.

Government, as well as religion, has furnished its schisms, its persecutions, and its devices for fattening idleness on the earnings of the people. It has its hierarchy of emperors, kings, princes, and nobles, as that has of popes, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and priests. In short, cannibals are not to be found in the wilds of America only, but are reveling on the blood of every living people.

18 posted on 06/26/2005 5:02:15 AM PDT by LowCountryJoe (50 states, and their various laws, will serve 'we, the people' better than just one LARGE state can)
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To: freepatriot32

I'm not normally one to advocate government interference with religion, but the U.S. Govt. should have this article etched in stone and placed at the entrance of every Saudi Arabian funded Mosque in our country.


19 posted on 06/26/2005 5:03:49 AM PDT by clearlight
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To: freepatriot32
Obviously it's still 64 A.D. in Saudi Arabia.

All this country needs is some amphitheaters and lions.

Its fake veneer of "civilization" is only that which is purchased with oil money.

Leni

20 posted on 06/26/2005 5:11:08 AM PDT by MinuteGal (Florida Freepers: Check out the Florida Forum. Click the Florida Flag on Your Profile Page)
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