Day: February 22, 2013

Saudi religious police arrest Ethiopian workers for practicing Christianity | Fox News Re-blog

Peanut gallery: The Saudis (World Watch List #2) are at it again… and Ethiopian Christians working in the country are their target… 53 arrested this month.

Nina Shea, the director of the Washington-based Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, told FoxNews.com that the arrests in Dammam are “part of Saudi Arabia’s policy to ban non-Muslim houses of worship and actually hunt down Christians in private homes.”

Suadi Arabia's Mutaween(Photo: Religious police during a training session in Riyadh September 1, 2007/Ali Jarekji)
Saudi Arabia’s Mutaween
(Photo: Religious police during a training session in Riyadh September 1, 2007/Ali Jarekji)

What are the Saudis afraid of… if their brand of Islam is so superior to all other religious expression? Or, maybe it isn’t… and they know it wouldn’t survive without their state-sponsored religious Gestapo.

As for Christians living in the country, they won’t get a lot of help from their embassies. Their countries are much too beholden to Arab oil and money to care much about the persecution of their Christian nationals. Politicians’ rebukes are meaningless unless backed up with action. Don’t hold your breath on that happening.

The best we can do is pray for Christian expats living in the country… no small thing. And let the world know that the Saudis are doing to expat Christians in their country.

Please read the full Fox News article below –

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Saudi religious police arrest Ethiopian workers for practicing Christianity
By
Published February 21, 2013

| FoxNews.com – Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

Ethiopian Orthodox worshipers pray before the traditional Washing of the Feet ceremony at the Ethiopian section of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City April 21, 2011, ahead of Easter. REUTERS/Baz Ratner
Ethiopian Orthodox worshipers pray before the traditional Washing of the Feet ceremony at the Ethiopian section of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City April 21, 2011, ahead of Easter. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

Saudi Arabia’s notorious religious police, known as the mutawa, swooped in on a private gathering of at least 53 Ethiopian Christians this month, shutting down their private prayer, and arresting the peaceful group of foreign workers for merely practicing their faith, FoxNews.com has learned.

The mixed group of men and women was seized in a private residence in the city of Dammam, the capital of the wealthy oil province in Eastern Arabia, and Saudi authorities charged three Christian leaders with seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity. The latest crackdown on Christianity in the ultra-fundamental Islamic country comes on the heels of a brutal 2011/2012 incarceration and torture of 36 Ethiopian Christians, and drew a sharp rebuke from a U.S. lawmaker. Continue reading “Saudi religious police arrest Ethiopian workers for practicing Christianity | Fox News Re-blog” →

Morning Reading: Luke 9.46-48 NLT – the least among you

Reading: Luke 9.46-48 NLT

portrait_child_little_girlThen his disciples began arguing about which of them was the greatest. But Jesus knew their thoughts, so he brought a little child to his side.

Then he said to them, “Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me also welcomes my Father who sent me. Whoever is the least among you is the greatest.”

Prayer: Lord Jesus – Open my eyes to see the “least among us” – those who are small, those who are infirmed, those who serve, those who work in the background, those who go about their daily lives mostly unseen. Give me the same open heart… generous spirit… and welcoming attitude towards them… as I as I would offer you. To you be all honor and glory. Amen.

Hymn: “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace” – St Francis of Assisi

Make me a channel of your peace. Where there is hatred let me bring your love. Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord. And where there’s doubt, true faith in you.

Oh, Master grant that I may never seek / So much to be consoled as to console / To be understood as to understand / To be loved as to love with all my soul.

Make me a channel of your peace. Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope. Where there is darkness, only light. And where there’s sadness, ever joy.

Oh, Master grant that I may never seek / So much to be consoled as to console / To be understood as to understand / To be loved as to love with all my soul.

Make me a channel of your peace. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned. In giving to all men that we receive. And in dying that we’re born to eternal life.

Oh, Master grant that I may never seek / So much to be consoled as to console / To be understood as to understand / To be loved as to love with all my soul.