God damned Saudi Grinches! Saudi Fury, if you don't mind...
nocoolnamejim
From what i understand, non-Muslims are allowed to pray within their homes (this is not always respected as is this case right now), but not allowed for public displays. this prohibition is extended to also other Muslims, Shia, Sufi, or other.
and this job seems like something the religious polices is responsible for. and this has happened before, this is not a new case. happened a lot after the Gulf War years when we had lots of American and British expatriates living there, even in the American compounds (which i don't know when the rule was changed are now completely hands off from the religious police).
One thing that's definently not on the menu is prosletyzing to Muslims to change religions. that will not go over well. at. all. especially with the religious authority in charge.
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I know Fize doesn't like me blaming the religion, or hating on the PVPV (the religious police, also called the haya for short). I don't like this institution at all. The same nonesense occurs in places like Malaysia where 65% of the population is Muslim the rest is everyone else (Christian, Buddhist, nons, etc).
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I would also like to add a tangent, I didn't fully read the article, but assuming that these are Saudi - Arab's born and raised that are now Christian, it's almost a stereotype as to why they are that. Most of them will be young women, some guys. and it seems mostly routed in a need for a more lax religion. Putting aside all the negatives you can poke at Christianity, and then the Islamic based criticisms like shirk (placing something or someone alongside the same status of God). Christianity can be often seen as very simple to accept, that being the famous line "accept Jesus as your lord and savior and your sins will be forgiven and you may enter heaven" as well as a strong emphasis on forgivness and peace.
Now growing up there, i'm often told by my parents and extended family that Islam is a very easy religion to follow, but then you got very conservative religious authorities who basically bully you, simple things like Valentines Day heart, owning a cat, or playing pokemon card games are either outright banned or made more difficult to obtain (with the threat of legal reprecussions), top it off with living in an aboslute monarchy environment, plus all the strong tribal and traditioanl customs (which are NOT big on individualism), the religion ends up becoming like a prison for some people, it becomes the thing that is used to stop you from enjoying some pretty simple things in life. or i should add, enjoy simple things without having to feel like you should feel guilty.
Plus there isn't a REAL sense of like ' do this simple thing and all is forgiven' you are to be held to account on judgment day before God in Islam. only He may forgive of your sins. there is no easy get-out-of-jail card except for martyrdom (which helps explain it's appeal), but i've always distinguashed martyrs as something where they have to react, not provoke, and not over something like "omfg you draw a rude picture of mohammed!' or "your country killed a bunch of our people with a drone, now lemme bomb your school bus!". There is, a simple easy one with Christianity - at least the one that gets talked about a lot in the Western world.
In Saudi, Islam isn't simply reading, memorizing ,and understanding the Quran, and following the 5 pillars, it's also having to ascribe to ancient hadiths, and the laws that have to be formulated from ancient scripture to deal with modern things (like cell phone pictures - cells capable of taking pics were temporarily banned in Saudi, the internet, etc.). and Saudi is oft mocked even by it's closest neighbors (in the Gulf) for just how conservative they are and get.
Then there is also the aspect i've seen where Saudi's will go from Islam, to Christianity (for the same reasons i just mentioned above) to straight out Atheism, like sliding out of having to do anything with regards to religion, not so much a sincere belief change.
other then all that.
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just you would be surprised the sorts of parties that i've been to (no orgies - don't get the dirty ideas), parties where all the guys and girls were doing a theme. Where going to a private water park Sunset Beach and you see Saudi girls in bakini's (and if you even LOOK religious they won't let you in, they wont take your money they don't want the trouble). People have places (more and more i'd say in the last 6 years and that's a good thing) where they can just let out some steam from all the conservative cultural, religions, police-state BS that goes on in the public sphere.
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