pander to the Saudis<\/a> this way.<\/p>\nThere are no churches in Saudi Arabia. Public displays of Christian worship are unlawful and draw the attention of the Muttawa, government-paid agents who monitor religious deviationism. Customs officials confiscate materials considered offensive, such as Bibles.
\nDaniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, recalls the restrictions on Christmas services imposed on the hundreds of thousands of American troops deployed in Saudi Arabia in preparation for Desert Storm in December 1990.
\nIn an article in the current issue of The National Interest, Pipes says the Saudis decreed that Christmas services could be held, but only in places “where they would be invisible to the outside world, such as tents and mess halls.”<\/p>\n
Not that the Saudis single out foreigners this way.<\/p>\n
All citizens of Saudi Arabia must be Muslim. Conversion by a Muslim to another religion is considered apostasy and can be punishable by death. Christian missionaries are unwelcome.<\/p>\n
Of course, the US doesn’t just single out Christianity in its make-nice to the House of Saud.<\/p>\n
Christians lack religious freedom in Saudi Arabia, but Jews for the most part are denied entry. Timothy Hunter, a former U.S. diplomatic official assigned to Saudi Arabia in the 1990s, says State Department policy was to avoid sending Jewish employees to the kingdom under an agreement with the Saudis.
\nIn a letter this past June, Hunter told Pipes that it was “the duty of the foreign service director of personnel to screen all Foreign Service officers applying for service in the KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and to `tick’ Jewish officers’ names using the letter `J’ next to their names, so that selection panels would not select Jewish diplomats for service in Saudi Arabia.” <\/p>\n
Imagine, if you will, if the Saudis were so adamant against blacks entering the country. Would we sit by and simply put a little “B” tick next to African-American diplomats?<\/p>\n
Of course, if we’re doing thought exercises, one has to wonder what world (not to mention Saudi) reaction would be if the US banned mosques, confiscated all copies of the Koran, forbade Moslem missionaries, arrested and flogged citizens who were overtly Moslem, jailed or executed citizens who converted to Islam, and asked other nations to vet their diplomatic rolls so that Moslems were not sent here by their foreign ministries.<\/p>\n
Gosh, we’d probably be accused of oppression, provocation, hate crimes, and crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, the Saudis are our friends, so we don’t have to say such mean thigns about them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Which doubtless is why we pander to the Saudis this way. There are no churches in Saudi Arabia. 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That must prove all the Saudis love Donald Trump!","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 22-May-17 8:35pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Or that people who publicly protest in Saudi Arabia get arrested and thrown into jail. But, hey, keen idea for making the Administration's life easier back home, amirite? 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