Posted on 09/15/2014 5:28:34 PM PDT by xzins
The situation for Christians in the Middle East continues to get worse, but this time, it isn’t at the hands of a terrorist group or band of rebels. It’s from one of our supposed allies in the region: Saudi Arabia. As Fox News reports, this past Friday (September 12th), agents from the country’s Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice rounded up 28 Christians at the home of an Indian national in the city of Khafji, and several Bibles were confiscated as well.. Their condition and whereabouts are currently unknown. As Nina Shea of the Hudson Institute told Fox News:
“Saudi Arabia is continuing the religious cleansing that has always been its official policy…It is the only nation state in the world with the official policy of banning all churches. This is enforced even though there are over 2 million Christian foreign workers in that country. Those victimized are typically poor, from Asian and African countries with weak governments.”
More information on the arrests comes later in the article:
An article posted on the Arabic-language news website Akhbar 24 said the arrests came after the Kingdom’s religious police got a tip about a home-based church. The report further noted that “distorted writings of the Bible were found and musical instruments, noting their referral to the jurisdictional institutions.”
The Saudi media reported different compositions of the arrested Christians. Some reports said the Christians were men and women, while the Saudi Gazette wrote that children, as well as men and women, were detained. It was unclear if a court date has been set in the notoriously opaque fundamentalist court system.
Thus far, the only person speaking out for them in Washington is Congressman Frank Wolf of Virginia, who has long been known for his human rights advocacy. He is doing what he can to get our ambassador to the country to speak up on their behalf.
Secretary of State John Kerry is heading there as well, but will he talk to the Saudis about them? If recent events are any indicator, I wouldn’t get my hopes up to much. At the very least, we should be asking why a country that had gone through such pains to establish itself as voice of moderation on interfaith dialogue, going as far as to sponsoring center dedicated to it in Vienna, still oppressing Christians in such a way. As Nina Shea correctly notes, there is no other country in the world that officially bans all churches. We shouldn’t let Saudi Arabia get away with this, but will our leadership’s moral rudderlessness and economic ties to the country prevent them from taking any significant action on the issue?
Should have told the Saudis to FOAD in 1973, along with all the other OPECkers.
How conveeeeenient, so close to their bestest buddies, the Bushes.
“We are stuck with the Saudis because WE are their BIGGEST CUSTOMER”
You missed my point. If the backstabbing, al Qaeda supporting, pedophiles who make up the “royal” family are all dead and US corporations are controlling the oil fields we won’t have to worry about $25 a gallon gas, now will we.
Nuke Riyadh. Hunt the “royals” down like the filthy, rabid, 6th century savages they are. If anyone so much as looks cross eyed at us, nuke them too. I don’t care if that’s Luxembourg.
The time for treating these islamic savages as if they were human beings is over.
I’m sooooo glad you’re old man could work on his golf game, tho.
L
Saudi Arabia allows no Bibles, no Christian jewelry be worn and no Christian apps to be downloaded on to cell phones, by visiting Americans. So much for a friendly ally.
As a country SA isn’t ‘moderate’. Only a few key current members of the ruling class have had a long business & political relationship with the west. The fact that SA as a very influential member of OPEC has helped keep oil prices in check for rhe west is a significant reason we’ve been on friendly terms with them. The other is SA acts a type of ‘police’ in the the ME & N. Africa for the west against countries like Iran to maintain balance of power. In terms of islam, SA can’t be moderate or secular. The House of Saud was chosen as the custodian of islam, mecca & medina. The ruling class there embarked on a massive program to expand its pilgrim tourism too (only for muslims). It’s now a multi-billion dollar business. Because they said they can’t continue to depend only on oil revenue in coming yrs.
Will Saudi Arabia start a lion breeding program ?
Give Gaza and the West Bank to the middle east Christians, and expel the rest, and see them bloom.
I have always said that Gaza would never bloom, because Gazans aren’t Frenchmen. But fill it with even arab Christians and it would be what Lebanon once was.
obama will volunteer the irs to audit the saudi christians.
Kurdish "homeland" was built by the genocide of the previous owners, who were Christians.
We are stuck with the Saudis because WE are their BIGGEST CUSTOMER.
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I think that changed this year.
Saudi Arabia exported an average of 1.5 million bbl/d of total petroleum liquids to the United States in the first quarter of 2014, an increase of 0.4 million bbl/d from the first quarter of 2013. Since 2012, Saudi Arabia has been the second-largest petroleum exporter annually, after Canada, to the United States. In 2013, after the United States, the next four top importers of Saudi crude and petroleum products according to GTIS were Japan (1.2 million bbl/d), China (1.1 million bbl/d), South Korea (0.9 million bbl/d), and India (0.8 million bbl/d).
http://www.eia.gov/countries/cab.cfm?fips=SA
Since the above was written, imports from Saudi have dropped to 1.0 million bbl/d
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MTTIMUSSA2&f=M
Is that right?
I read a post where you claimed those exact things. So....who's nuts?
Exactly.
If the shoe fits.
What you say is probably true.
Well, I guess they changed’s from the 1980’s...just a consulate in Houston.
So you're denying that's what you posted.
Why? They're your words. Own them.
God bless you and yours.
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