Christians in Saudi Arabia

Submitted by Gabriel Grosso (Italy), Jan 9, 2003 at 18:45

"Saudi Arabia knows only one religion and it is Islam". Saudi Arabia restricts Christian practices and nobody -except Mr Pipes and few others- has a word to say. Saudi Arabia's religious intolerance is consistent with its financial support for the totalitarian ideology of Militant Islam (not to be confused with the great religion of Islam). No European nation could impose such restrictions on any religion.

Let's do the maths: if Saudi Arabia bans Christianity in its own soil and finances Militant Islam outside its borders, this means that Militant Islam will progress and intolerance against Christianity will increase. America, France, Britain, Italy etc. should pressurize Saudi Arabia to give more rights to women, Jews and Christians. Saudi Arabia is not afraid of discriminating against Christians and other groups. Like Daniel Pipes said, the US-Saudi relationship is one-sided. The Saudis must think that we- Americans and Europeans- are very stupid because we allow them to invest in our countries without asking anything in exchange.

Unlike the Saudis, I try to be fair and balanced. Militant Islam is not Islam. In fact, traditional Islam is the religion of 1 billion people and there is no way that we can make generalizations about such a big group of people. Traditional Islam is different from the totalitarian ideology of Militant Islam. Ordinary Muslims are very decent people and deserve respect. Non-totalitarian Muslims can fit in European/American society and bring new energy and dynamism. There is no such thing as a clash of civilisations. However, we need to show some guts and stand up to the Saudis. Let us fight the intolerance of Saudi Arabia.

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