The Saudis Shred Bibles!

So no sooner does it turn out that the Newsweek "expose" on Koran pages being flushed was a New Journalism lie and fabrication than the lib'ruh media are back with a new "human rights abomination". This time it is Saddam Hussein photographed in his panties.

I am not sure whether the publication of those photos violates Saddam's human rights or ours. Be that as it may, I am kind of hoping that the Ba'athists on the Uruknet web site will retaliate by publishing similar pictures of Al Gore and John Kerry in their briefs. I would add Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton to the wish list, but I am not sure anyone has polaroids of them with their undies pulled UP!

Meanwhile, the REAL news story that the lib'ruh media are avoiding is the fact that Suadi Arabia routinely confiscates Bibles from visiting non-Moslems and then shreds them!

CNSNews reports that Bibles found in the possession of visitors to Saudi Arabia are routinely confiscated by customs officials, and in some cases copies allegedly have been put through a paper shredder. Reports from the Islamic world of the abuse of Bibles and other items important to Christians emerge from time to time, but generally have little impact - in contrast to the wave of Muslim anger sparked by a Newsweek report, since retracted, of Koran desecration by the U.S. military. "Some Christians have reported that upon entering Saudi Arabia they have had their personal Bibles taken from them and placed into a paper shredder," the U.S.-based International Christian Concern said in its 2001 report. This was confirmed in the 2003 report on Saudi Arabia by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent watchdog set up under the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act.

Danny Nalliah, a Sri Lankan-born evangelical pastor now based in Australia, spent two years in Saudi Arabia during the 1990s, where he was involved with the underground church. "It's a very well-known fact that if you have a Bible at customs when you enter the airport, and if they find the Bible, that the Bible is taken and put in the shredder," he said in an interview this week reported on CNSNews. "If you have more than one Bible you will be taken into custody, and if you have a quantity of Bibles you will be given 70 lashes for sure - you could even be executed."

Abuse of Christians and their symbols was not restricted to the destruction of Bibles, he added. He described what happened when a nun was stopped in Saudi Arabia's airport: "They opened her bag, went through her prayer book, put the prayer book through the shredder ... took the crucifix off her neck and smashed it, tormented her for many minutes."

Meanwhile, the Washington, DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) reported this week an incident involving Christian human rights workers in Pakistan.ֲ Human rights activists were planning a rally in the city of Lahore. On May 14 at 4p.m. just before the rally was to begin, police from various stations around Lahore raided the offices and charged the activists with their batons, beating the gathered Christians.ֲ Police officers and Jamaat-e-Islami members pulled the hair of the women, dragged them down the road and stripped them of their clothes. Men involved in the rally were severely beaten and later taken to Model Town Police Station along with some women. While detained, no one was allowed contact with the Christian human rights workers and no formal charges were brought against them.

This is just the latest in a long string of violence carried out by Pakistani police targeting Christians. In the past, police have arrested Christians and beaten the prisoners to death, with no charges filed.