Iran critical of discrimination in the world of Islam

The Iranian News Agency (IRNA) reports that 200 Iranian instructors have asked Saudi King Abdullah for stopping insults to pilgrims to the holy sites in that country. The letter reads, among other things,

Unfortunately, many cases of insult and disrespect to the followers of other sects are seen in the land of revelation near the tomb of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). ... Such acts will increase schisms among Muslims.

Muslims like to stress how united they are, but this letter shows that the shiite Muslims are not happy with how they are being treated when on pilgrimage in Mekka. The fact that this letter is published by IRNA is also an insult by Iran to Saudi Arabia, even though the language used sounds friendly. The Saudi KIng, Abdullah, is told in public by Iran that he is not implementing his role as protector of the holy sites too well.

Why bother about contextualization....

If we see that our beloved Saudi Muslims sisters just loooove Oprah Winfrey, why would we worry about contextualizing our Christian message ;-)

When "The Oprah Winfrey Show" was first broadcast in Saudi Arabia in November 2004 on a Dubai-based satellite channel, it became an immediate sensation among young Saudi women. Within months, it had become the highest-rated English-language program among women 25 and younger, an age group that makes up about a third of Saudi Arabia's population. ... More HERE in the New York Times

Happy birthday to you..... NO! HARAAM!!!!

Shortly after prominent Saudi cleric Salman al-Audah said on Saudi television that it was OK to celebrate birthdays for Moslems, the country’s grand mufti and top religious authority, Sheik Abdul-Aziz Al Sheik, responded saying that celebrating birthdays is a foreign innovation - a Christian one - and, as such, forbidden.”Christians have Mother’s Day, an eid for trees, and an eid for every occasion,” the enlightened and highly intelligent Al Sheik said. The previous mufti, Sheik Abdul-Aziz bin Baz, also considered it haram, forbidden, to celebrate birthdays. “It’s not permissible to take part in them,” he said. “Birthday parties are an innovation … and people are in no need of innovations,” this great Saudi Arabian thinker said several years ago.

What is most interesting about this recent debate is that al-Audah broke with his fellow leading clerics publicly. Birthdays are considered ‘forbidden’ by most Saudis, especially by the religious leaders. They do not even support celebrating the birthday of the prophet Mohammed.

Al-Audah obviously disagrees with that, believing it to be fine if people want to celebrate their own or someone else’s birthday. He did, however, point out that one should not call birthday’s eid. The reason for this is that an eid should be strictly religious, according to al-Audah that is. Eid is an Arabic word meaning “feast.” For more on this see HERE

Saudi convert burned to death

In Saudi Arabia, a young woman was executed by her own father, an officer of the Muttawa, as he felt obliged by honor to cleanse his family of his daughter’s shame. She had become a Christian, God forbid! According to ANSAmed:

The sentence could not be appealed: guilty for converting to Christianity, a young Saudi woman was set alight by her father, who first had cut her tongue.

Not an ordinary father, but a member of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Against Vice [the Muttawa], a sort of police watching over the moral behaviour of the citizens of Saudi Arabia and the full compliance with the rules of the rigid Wahabi doctrine, by using whiplashes on the legs for too high heels and arresting men and women not linked by marriage or family bonds for meetings in restaurants.

To the injury of the conversion, the woman had added also the insult of the written word, by writing articles with Christian-religious content on blogs and regional websites. The brutal news reported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE)’s daily Gulf News reflects the reality of Saudi Arabia, a conservative and intransigent country, and throws ice-cold water on the image of an oil kingdom which says to be ready to open up partially to other religions, an image painted by the recent gestures of the king Abdallah Bin Abdelaziz.

The father of the burnt alive Saudi woman, as reported by sources close to the victim, is investigated for “honour killing” and not “murder”, a motif which if acknowledged, might lead to a sentence of up to three years in prison, because caused by the necessity to “wash the shame of dishonour” fallen on the entire family, for the unbecoming behaviour of the daughter.

Zawya has more details on this brutal incident. According to the following report, the young woman’s discovery of Christianity as well as the exposure of her crime were brought about in part by the internet:

According to the Saudi Al Ukhdoud news website, the victim wrote an article on the blog of which she was a member under the nickname “Rania” a few days before her murder.

She wrote that her life became an ordeal after her family members grew suspicious about her after a religious discussion with them.

She said that her brother found some Christian articles written by her as well as a cross sign on her computer screen. Since then he started to insult her and blamed the internet for pushing her to change her religion.

[…]

Saudi religious scholars have frequently warned against the dangers of Christian internet websites and satellite TV channels which attract Muslim youngsters to change their religion.

They decreed that watching these channels or browsing these websites which call for conversion to Christianity by various means is against the teachings of Islam.

The importance of the internet to the subversion of Islam cannot be overstated. Islam is brittle and vulnerable, and cannot easily maintain itself where information flows freely to the people who are imprisoned by it. The fact that Christian conversions can occur even in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia — the Heart of Darkness itself — shows the value of modern forms of communication in the struggle against Islam.

It’s also important to remember that dedicated Christian believers are quietly and diligently risking their lives all over the world to spread the message of their faith. The conversion rate in countries like Saudi Arabia is obviously hard to estimate, because to count a new believer is to condemn her to death.

Interesting religious dialogue with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia

Some thing seem to be changing... King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had a good idea in convening an interfaith conference in the Spanish capital, Madrid, earlier this month. The meeting brought together some 200 representatives of the three monotheistic faiths - Christianity, Islam and Judaism. The Saudi king even met Jewish people - including one from Israel. Fr Samir Khalil SJ, gives some excellent comments (as always, a pleasure to read him!) in AsiaNews.

The Jerusalem Post caught the importance of the event. More can also be read in the International Herald Tribune. And this is how Rabbi David Rosen describes its significance.

Domestic workers in Saudi Arabia suffer

You would think that in a land with the sharia as its law, life would be rather good - if you are of the persuasion that the sharia is God's own law. Why then is life so miserable for many in Saudi Arabia?

Domestic workers are often subjected to abuse that in some cases amounts to slavery, as well as sexual violence and lashings for spurious charges of theft or "witchcraft," Human Rights Watch published in a 133-page report. The organization urged Saudi Arabia to implement labor, immigration and criminal justice reforms to protect the workers, saying employers often face no punishment for such abuses. The report said that rather than receiving justice, domestic workers - most of them migrants from Asia - are more likely to face counter-accusations of witchcraft, theft or adultery.

"In the best cases, migrant women in Saudi Arabia enjoy good working conditions and kind employers, and in the worst they're treated like virtual slaves. Most fall somewhere in between," said Nisha Varia, senior researcher in the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch.

The ugly battle in the Arab World has begun...

Hardline Sunni clerics in Saudi Arabia accused Shiites Sunday of destabilizing Muslim countries and humiliating Sunnis, just days before a Muslim interfaith conference called by Saudi Arabia's king. The International Herald Tribune reports.

The attacks on Iran, Iraq and Hezbollah — though contrary to official policy — highlight the sharp, growing distrust between Islam's two arms, and its potential to cause more unrest.

In a strongly worded statement, the 22 clerics savaged the Iranian-backed Shiite Hezbollah in Lebanon, saying it has tricked Muslims into believing it is against Jews and Americans.