As Osama bin Laden is fond of saying, "Reciprocal treatment is part of justice." More on this story. "A Russian church for a Saudi mosque?" by Julia Duin for the Washington Times, December 3:
The Saudis have recently asked permission to build a mosque in Moscow, a city where there are only four mosques and 2 million Muslims. The Russians, however, are saying they want, in return, an Orthodox church in Saudi Arabia.As we all know, the Saudis have a habit of constructing mosques in dozens of world capitals while forbidding houses of worship for any religion whatsoever outside its Wahabist brand of Islam. They've gotten some bad PR locally for some of the hate language in textbooks at the Saudi Academy in northern Virginia. Not only are hapless Christians terrorized and jailed for daring to hold private prayer services in Saudi Arabia, but God help them should they try to convert someone to their religion. And that's for a fellow People of the Book: One can only guess at what the treatment of Buddhists and Hindus must be like.
Wouldn't it be so ironic if the Russians were the first Christian body to win acceptance of the right to build a church in, say, Riyadh? (Some of the Russians are calling for a church in Mecca, but the chances of any other religion getting a foothold within walking distance of the world center of Islam is less than zero.) Of course we all know the Saudis aren't about ready to let Bibles or other religious literature, let alone a church, anywhere near their homeland, but all the same, it's amusing to see the Russians give the Saudis a taste of their own medicine.
A friend last night here in Riyadh asked the common question, "Why do Saudis build mosques in America, but not allow Christians to build churches in Saudi Arabia?"
My response was, "To them, their position is entirely logical. Islam is true, and other religions are false. It only makes sense that you would want to build mosques to spread the true religion, but forbid the building of churches to prevent the spread of false religion."
To which he replied, "I guess that is Saudi logic."
Wouldn't it be great if all western governments did the same thing? It would expose the Saudis as the hypocrites that they are.
BTW, Raymond, don't you ever sleep? 3:08 AM post. Hard-core.
I have a feeling this might end in a compromise with the Saudis giving their permission for a church to be built in...Moscow.
Got to give the Russians credit for trying!
I agree with your opening comments on reciprocity. While Julia Duin seems to give up on that right from the outset, it seems to me that reciprocity would require exactly that.
As we know, Moscow is the center of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and is to that denomination what Mecca is to Islam. So the rules of reciprocity would demand that a church in Mecca is a pre-requisite for a mosque in Moscow (which already is generous enough by having 4).
Incidentally, Moscow's population itself is 10 million, so 2 million sounds inflated: are they claiming that Moscow is 20% Mohammedan? As it is, most of Russia's Mohammedans are concentrated in Chechnya and surrounding areas, and in Tatarstan.
Staringattheview
You should have corrected your friend and told him that it's Islamic logic, not Saudi. It's not like Christians would have an easy time building a church in Pakistan, Egypt, Iran or Indonesia.
Also, staringattheview, what forced you to go to Riyadh? Please don't tell me that you went there voluntarily!
true
Actually Tsarist Russia had a history of standing up for the Christians in the Ottoman empire.
What's disappointing is that after standing up for non-negotiable human rights within the Soviet Union for so many decades, the West appears to have gone soft and won't stand up for the human rights of women and christians in any of the OIC states.
The West doesn't stand up for anything anymore, especially Eastern Orthodox Christianity. I remember the US Air Force dropping bombs on Christian Serbia that had been written on with 'Happy Easter'. Do you think any bombs were dropped on Muslims with 'Happy Ramadan'? Not a chance, it won't happen. Not very PC.