up another private worship service of expatriate believers in the capital, news reports said Thursday, May 5. Five elders of an East African house church were detained when Islamic police forces raided their gathering in Riyadh’s central Al-Olaya district on Friday, April 29, Christian news agency Compass Direct said. There was no immediate independent confirmation of that report.
Compass Direct said "high-ranking Muslim sheikhs" and officers burst into the congregation of 60 Ethiopians and Eritreans who had gathered for group prayers Friday afternoon.
"Don’t ever come again to meet in this place," the officials reportedly warned the men, women and children in attendance. Compass Direct quoted local sources as saying that the religious police confiscated 40 of the worshippers’ personal Bibles in the Amharic and Tigrinya languages, along with one woman’s cross necklace.
The five men detained at the scene were identified as Yemane Gebre Loul and Gazai Zarom, Eritreans; and Msfen Tekle, Yonas Tekle, and Teklu Mola, Ethiopians. During their initial detention and interrogations, the five Christians were allowed to maintain telephone contact with their families, and one man’s wife was permitted to visit her husband once. But after four days, “Things have tightened up a bit," a local source was quoted as saying.
"Since yesterday, the Saudi authorities have hidden them," one Ethiopian Christian told Compass by telephone. “Nobody has seen them or talked with them." The five have reportedly been transferred to prison facilities of the Ministry of Interior.
PRAYER AND WORSHIP
The group of East Africans had reportedly met for prayer and worship in Riyadh for the past four years. The Eritrean Embassy reportedly said it has not been informed of any such arrest of its citizens yet, and that it is awaiting "notification" from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It was the second reported crackdown in Riyadh within a week, following the April 22 arrest of 40 Pakistani Christians participating in a joint Catholic-Protestant prayer service. All Pakistani
Christians have been released, church sources say.
In 2001, several Ethiopians and Eritreans were among 14 foreign Christian nationals arrested and then detained for up to eight months in the Saudi port city of Jeddah for their involvement in private house-church gatherings, news reports said. Before their deportation, three of the Ethiopians were given 80 lashes in front of 500 other prisoners for allegedly “preaching against Islam” among their detention center cellmates, Compass Direct claimed.
MANY FOREIGNERS
There are around six million foreigners in the conservative kingdom, which has a population of 23 million, including many Christians from Europe, North America, Asia and other Arab states. In a rare official rebuke of a close ally last year, Washington recently accused Saudi Arabia of severe violations of religious freedom.
"Freedom of religion is not recognized or protected under the country’s laws and basic religious freedoms are denied to all but those who adhere to the state-sanctioned version of Sunni Islam," the State Department said in an annual report.
Analysts say that following the September 11, 2001 attacks, which were carried out by mainly Saudis, the Gulf Arab state’s religious establishment came under sharp criticism by the West for allegedly fostering militancy and intolerance of other religions.
Saudi officials have not commented, but observing any religion other than Islam is illegal in the Kingdom. (With BosNewsLife Research and reports from Saudi Arabia)
