Thursday, May 19, 2005

Saudis Shred Bibles, Rights Campaigners Claim -- 05/19/2005

From Cybercast News Service.

Specifically, if you try to bring a Bible into Saudi Arabia, and customs officials find it on you, they will confiscate it and probably put it into the shredder. If they find two, they'll arrest you--and if they find a certain ill-defined quantity of Bibles, you'll be lucky to get out alive with seventy stripes on your back.

We Christians, of course, do not routinely run riot like that when we hear of such things. For one thing, that would violate the Golden Rule. For another, God Himself told us to expect just this sort of disrespect, especially as the Last Days gallop toward us. (The difference between Christianity and Islam is that Christ told us that He would handle any physical warfare and retribution, while Islam tells its followers to exact vengeance from anyone and everyone who doesn't follow "Allah.") And for a third, God is a God of order, not a God of riot.

But here again--don't let anyone tell you that Islam is a religion of peace, or of any love for anything or anyone. Nor should you believe that the event alleged in Newsweek, even if it occurred (which it almost certainly did not), would ever be any more than an isolated incident. This while the abuse of Christians and of Holy Scriptures is a matter of routine--and in a country that says that it is allied with us.