Ever Wonder How 1 Million Catholics In Saudi Arabia Manage To Pray?

Well, it ain't easy.

According to this report, Filipinos charged with 'proselytizing' after religious police raid Catholic Mass

It didn't take long before a private Roman Catholic Mass organized by expatriates in the capital of the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia was shut down.


As the service got underway at a hotel last week, officers from the feared religious police, also known as the Mutawa, barged onto the premises, shutting down the Mass and arresting 13 Filipinos, including a Catholic priest, Saudi media reports say.

The group was released on bail after being briefly detained at a nearby police station, but they are still facing serious criminal charges for allegedly organizing the Mass, the Arab News, a Saudi English daily, reported.

"They were charged with proselytizing," the newspaper quoted Ezzedin H. Tago, chargé d'affaires at the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh, as saying.

The rest of the approximately 150 expatriates caught up in the raid were reportedly let off the hook -- partly because there was not enough space at the police station to accommodate them.

It is estimated that more than 1 million Catholics live in Saudi Arabia, many of whom are migrant workers from the Philippines.

Is the ardor with which Muslims try to proselytize others in direct proportion to the degree to which they limit the religious 'rights' of non-Muslims in Muslim countries?
Apparently.

Because the kingdom applies a strict brand of Sunni Islam, Wahhabism, any non-Muslim worship must take place behind closed doors in non-Muslim homes only. For adherents of faiths other than Islam, worshipping or wearing religious symbols, such as crucifixes, in public could mean trouble. The last Christian priest was reportedly booted from Saudi Arabia in 1985.

Back in July 2008, Saudi Arabia organized a conference in Madrid about tolerance.
I wrote about it here and here.

There has been no followup for over 2 years.
Now you can see why.

Technorati Tag: Saudi Arabia and Religious Persecution.