Despite minor improvements, Saudi Arabia stays a troublesome place for Christians

A decade on from reforms to its religious police, Saudi Arabia will not be quite as tough because it once was on its Christian population, nevertheless it stays one in every of the hardest places on the earth to imagine in Jesus.

In its annual rating of world persecutors, Open Doors places Saudi Arabia because the thirteenth worst country for the persecution of Christians. While foreign-born Christians of a certain status are in a position to enjoy a really limited amount of spiritual freedom, the situation is much worse for those lower down in society and for native-born Saudis who want to follow Christ.

A report for International Christian Concern notes that unlike the world’s primary persecutor of Christianity, North Korea, Saudi Arabia doesn’t even trouble with the pretence of spiritual freedom.

There are not any “sham” churches for international observers. There are not any churches in any respect. But there are still over two million Christians within the country, the overwhelming majority of whom are migrant employees from poorer countries.

The report cites the case of 1 Christian within the country, “Nicolas”, a foreign-born Christian who’s fortunate to be among the many more comfortable in society. Nicolas, and others like him are occasionally in a position to worship at foreign consulates or can gather privately of their homes.

For poorer immigrant Christians nonetheless, police raids on such meetings are an actual risk.

The situation for Saudis of any class is much more serious. It is not possible to be a Saudi citizen without also being Muslim. Conversion officially carries the death penalty, although this has never been carried out.

Such is the social and legal pressure that Nicolas said he had never encountered a Saudi Christian: “I’m sure if there are any, they live in complete secrecy or try to depart the country and claim asylum abroad.”

Nicolas also recounted incidents by which the religious police would confiscate crosses, query those with Bibles and on one occasion beat and forcibly cut the hair of a Muslim man who had long hair.

Since the reforms of 2016, the religious police are not any longer in a position to implement Islamic morality in quite such a direct way – they maintain only the authority to “observe and report”.

As the report puts it, “The glory days of violently righteous authorities appear to have subsided. But Saudi Arabia stays a sharia kingdom, which implies it’s best to remain Christian on the stealth and keep your crosses hidden.”