This AP story chronicles a common sight in Saudi Arabia: "a sweep by the muttawas, or religious police, rounding up Muslim men -- Saudis and foreigners alike -- and forcing them to go to the mosque at prayer time."
Meanwhile, the article states the plight of non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia with unusual clarity: "Under Saudi law, all citizens must be Muslim. Non-Muslim foreigners sometimes get caught up in the muttawa sweeps."
A Christian friend of mine who worked in Saudi Arabia for awhile once told me that he would routinely have to hide when one of the five daily prayer times came around — if the muttawas caught him on the street, he would be jailed.
"The kingdom forbids non-Muslim public worship among the country's estimated 7 million expatriate workers, around half a million of whom are Christian. The kingdom also prohibits non-Muslim religious literature and public display of the symbols of other religions.
"Larry, 39, a computer programmer from the Philippines who gave only his first name, said he had been jailed for a day on three different occasions, including once for possessing a Bible. . . .
"In January, at least half a dozen Christian Filipinos were deported, after the muttawas found them holding religious gatherings, a diplomat in the kingdom said on condition of anonymity. Several others reportedly were arrested and deported in sweeps in 1998 and 1999 for similar reasons, including distributing Christian literature in Arabic."
Why does Saudi Arabia forbid Christian worship? This prohibition is founded on the Prophet Muhammad’s famous deathbed statement that “no two religions are allowed in Arabia.” Muhammad also said, “I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslims.” How can Saudis offer non-Muslims the freedom to practice their religions on sacred Arabian soil when the Prophet himself forbade it?
just read an article where you were having trouble having your book translated to french cant you simply bypass the country of france have a canadian or american to ghost translate it so it can suddenly appear on amazon ebay etc... in french german swedish etc... and btw trying to get the book sent to me for christmas cant wait to read it
on the above blog entry people need to realise almost everything most muslims are accusing israel of are things that they are actively doing the other day someone gave me the israel aparthaid line my retort was to point out the above facts and let them guess what country i was talking about and suprise they suddenly were aware there were multiple answers that were correct and not one of the correct answers were the US or Israel
Robert, I am outraged on your behalf, also for your translator Guy Milliere, for the bullying attempt to supress your book in France.
When will it be translated into Arabic?
In fact, I have a dear friend, a Palestinian, who very much wants to translate it into Arabic. But who would publish it?
Robert, perhaps you could get a grant and put the French and/or the Arabic translations on the net?
Talk to the folks at memri.org, perhaps their donors could help you.
I know this is a bit pie-in-the-sky, but hey... a phone call couldn't hurt, right?