CTWeekly delivers the best content from ChristianityToday.com to your inbox each week. The mass, Egypt’s Christians said, reflects the tremendous changes happening in Saudi Arabia. The government still does not sanction churches or any form public worship by non-Muslims, but progress is being made toward allowing private worship and protecting the rights of minority faiths. [1][7] As of 2008[update], the percentage of Christians of all denominations among the roughly 1.2 million Filipinos in Saudi Arabia was about 90%. A daily newsletter featuring the most important and significant events on each day in Christian History. Different era. All rights reserved. US envoy celebrates “unprecedented” progress under the promise of more moderate Muslim rule. “Christians feared for their lives and fled the country,” Tawadros told Saudi Arabia’s Arab News. Saudi Arabia has made unprecedented strides toward religious tolerance just a year after its young new ruler pledged to bring more moderate Islam to the Sunni kingdom. Currently there are no official churches in Saudi Arabia of any Christian denomination. Saudi Arabia’s current 7 th king and future 8 th king fit the Biblical narratives set forth by the Word of God. Some Arabian tribes, such as Banu Taghlib and Banu Tamim, followed Christianity. According to Moore, the commission—once the greatest barrier to private worship—no longer has authority to go into people’s homes or to make arrests. But at the end of last year, Saudi Arabia hosted its first ever mass by the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church in Riyadh. The arrests took place shortly after the media reported that a Quran had been desecrated in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.[11]. Moore represents the highest-profile evangelical leader to meet with the Saudi government since 33-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced plans last October to return the restrictive Muslim country to “what we were before: a country of moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world.” The USCIRF official formerly worked with Mark Burnett and Roma Downey’s campaign to aid persecuted Christians in the Middle East. Several people believe that this is a great step towards religious tolerance in the kingdom. [8] In spite of this, a 2015 study estimates that there are some 60,000 Christians with a Muslim background living in the country, though that does not mean that all of those are citizens of the country. “Saudi Arabia is showing an admirable degree of tolerance that gives us a lot of hope.”. After a visit to the capital city of Riyadh last week, US officials reported the country has reformed its religious police—once tasked with enforcing shari’ah law on the streets and in homes—and has instituted new government programs to quash extremism. [8], The Saudi Arabian Mutaween (Arabic: مطوعين‎), or Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (i.e., the religious police) prohibits the practice of any religion other than Islam. This is also about the potential change of fortunes for Christians in the Middle East, with the. He is President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue. The changes now coming to Saudi Arabia have been anticipated for over a year.

Under a Muslim constitution, Saudi Arabia continues to have laws against apostasy and conversion, though there a signs they may be becoming less strict in their implementation. “This is a historic development,” Morkos told The Arab Weekly in a telephone interview from Riyadh. Likewise the State Department, at USCIRF’s recommendation, has designated Saudi Arabia a “country of particular concern” since 2004 due to its egregious religious freedom violations. Get the most recent headlines and stories from Christianity Today delivered to your inbox daily. He said Christians in Saudi Arabia have already felt the effects of the reform under bin Salman and support the changes. Subscribe to CT and

Bassett, Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, Eradication of the Church under Stalinism, Persecution of Christians in the modern era, Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, Conversion of non-Islamic places of worship into mosques, Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution, Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany, arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm, 2008 attacks on Christians in southern Karnataka, List of Catholic martyrs of the English Reformation, Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Saudi Arabia, International Religious Freedom Report 2009 - Saudi Arabia, https://thearabweekly.com/first-christian-mass-held-saudi-arabia, "A catacomb Church? Accurate religious demographics are difficult to obtain in Saudi Arabia[1] but while all citizens are considered Muslims by the state, it is believed that there are approximately 1.8 million Christians in Saudi Arabia which are all expats.[2]. Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II (C-R) and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz (C-L) at the Cathedral of Abbasiya in Cairo, last March.

10/19/2019 Saudi Arabia (International Christian Concern) – Adherence to strict Saudi Arabian rules include restrictions on open Christian practice. “It is important that the whole world watch us — the Egyptians,” he said.

Most of those Christians are mainly Roman Catholic expat Filipinos but still … Cinemas are being constructed across the country, musical concerts are being organised and attended by all social classes. “The conditions of Christians are very bad in many of the countries of the region and this may change with the largest two countries in it acting as role models.”. Get the most recent headlines and stories from Christianity Today delivered to your inbox daily. Some Arab Christians who remained lived as crypto-Christians, or secret Christians. in the vicinity inside of King Faisal Road, "1st Ring Road".

“The question we continue to assess is whether this opening is extending to other parts of the country and the degree to which these reforms are impacting freedom of religion or belief in a country that still—for instance—officially bans public worship unless it is the state-sanctioned practice of Islam.”.

One of those developments, Halim said, would be the possible construction of the first church in Saudi Arabia. He wrote to CT days after the trip: I am optimistic for a Saudi Arabia where Muslims, Christians and others can freely and openly worship, living as neighbors, their children as friends with no fear of one another and, in fact, great joy from knowing one another. 24 others, mostly Greeks and Levantines, some "under British protection" plus the daughter of the French consul and the French interpreter, both badly wounded, escaped and took refuge, some by swimming to it, aboard the ship HMS Cyclops. Subscribers receive full access to the archives. John McDowell Leavitt, Nathaniel Smith Richardson, Henry Mason Baum G.B. Ancient Arabian Christianity has largely vanished from the region.

[8] There are also Christians from Canada, the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Italy, Greece, South Korea, Ireland, the United Kingdom, India, China, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and as well a number of Christians from sub-Saharan countries who are working in the Saudi Kingdom. Sign Up For Our Newsletter Christians had formed churches in Arabia prior to the time of Muhammad in the 7th century. Amr Emam is a Cairo-based journalist. “It should not be lost on us that the Crown Prince has—in the last six months alone—met with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Maronite Patriarch, and met with the Coptic Pope in Cairo and that meeting took place in front of wall-sized piece of art honoring Jesus,” Moore told CT. “There was also a very prominent visit by the recently deceased Cardinal Tauran [a Vatican diplomat] where he signed a joint agreement to promote peaceful coexistence with the General Secretary of the World Muslim League, Dr. al-Issa.”. Perhaps, but one that is alive and well .

Morkos discussed that and other issues related to Christian presence in Saudi Arabia and many speculated his visit to Riyadh would not be the last initiative between the Coptic Church and the Saudi government. (AFP). New tourist regulations allow for one Bible to be brought into the country for personal use only. Having an Egyptian bishop say mass in Saudi Arabia would have been inconceivable not long ago, before a range of social reforms were introduced in the kingdom. Many Egyptian Copts point to the rise of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood in 2012-13 as the start of the latest campaign against them. “It was the first time I have ever thought to myself, Wow, we could actually see religious freedom in Saudi. He has contributed to the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle and the UN news site IRIN. During his meeting with Tawadros in March, Crown Prince Mohammed suggested establishing an interfaith dialogue initiative between the region’s Muslims and Christians. Three women have come forward with additional allegations against the late Christian apologist.

“By showing tolerance to the Christians, Saudi Arabia and Egypt can inspire other countries in the region,” said Ishak Ibrahim, an Egyptian Christian researcher working with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights as part of its Freedom of Religion and Belief Programme. . Arab and international artists are visiting Riyadh in rapid succession.