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Last week I posted video of the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. trying to present an argument we would accept in favor of the Saudi laws that forbid churches and synagogues. And let's bear in mind that "forbid" means that if Christians or Jews get together to worship, they will be physically harmed. From the video:
As King Abdullah has said, and I think on American television, he said that we're pretty much like the Vatican. And one cannot imagine Muslims building a mosque inside the Vatican. Or Jews building a synagogue inside the Vatican. When the practice of religion is concerned, the regulation is that people can practice their religion in their homes any way they like. Without any hindrance. And that is the regulation in the kingdom.
Got that? Non-Muslims can practice their religion "in their own homes any way they like." What an arrogant statement, in view of the fact that the way they like to practice their religion is not merely in their own homes, but in churches and synagogues, which Saudi law forbids to them under pain of physical violence.
Additionally, commenter A.M. Whittaker exposes the facetiousness of the comparison to the Vatican:
...while I am not a Roman Catholic nor have been to Vatican City - or Rome - I do know these facts:
The size of Vatican City is 108.7 acres (Acres not miles!)
It is surrounded by Rome
The population living within Vatican City is under 1000
All lay workers(about 3000) reside outside of Vatican City in Rome and its suburbs
The Saudi Ambassador pretends that the whole nation of Saudi Arabia is comparable to a city with a population of under 1000. The argument is so spurious as to appear duplicitous -- it depends on the Westerners in his audience not knowing the facts about the Vatican.
In light of the news that international pressure has saved his life, it's worth taking a moment to consider the heroism of Abdul Rahman. Rahman was told by the courts in Afghanistan that he would be executed if he didn't renounce Christianity -- and he refused to renounce it. He felt so strongly about the beauty of Christianity that he refused to convert from it, even under this threat.
That's heroism.
Rahman, meanwhile, said he was fully aware of his choice and was ready to die for it, according to an interview published Sunday in an Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
"I am serene. I have full awareness of what I have chosen. If I must die, I will die," Abdul Rahman told the Rome daily, responding to questions sent to him via a human rights worker who visited him in prison.
"Somebody, a long time ago, did it for all of us," he added in a clear reference to Jesus.
Rahman also told the Italian newspaper that his family - including his ex-wife and teenage daughters - reported him to the authorities three weeks ago.
He said he made his choice to become a Christian "in small steps," after he left Afghanistan 16 years ago. He moved to Pakistan, then Germany. He tried to get a visa in Belgium.
"In Peshawar I worked for a humanitarian organization. They were Catholics," Rahman said. "I started talking to them about religion, I read the Bible, it opened my heart and my mind."
