English Airline Bans Bible on Saudi Arabia Flight

Following the decision of an English airline to forbid one of its flight attendants from carrying her personal Bible to Saudi Arabia, the British Foreign Office has backed the decision.

British Midland Airways (BMA) banned a "committed Christian" stewardess from having her Bible with her when she flew into the oil-rich Sunni Muslim state, according to a report in The London Telegraph.

A BMA official was quoted as excusing the company's infringement of the flight attendant's religious freedom by saying "we cannot start designing rules around individuals [or take their] personal preferences into account."

The Saudi regime is notorious for bragging about having "an open mind" and saying it "accepts Christianity and Judaism." However, not a single church exists in the desert country; foreign diplomats may not even hold Bible studies in their homes and Bibles discovered on tourists have been confiscated, with some allegedly even shredded.

Instead of taking the opportunity to expose the Saudi's hypocrisy, the Foreign Office concurred. "The importation [to Saudi Arabia] and use of narcotics, alcohol, pork products and religious books, apart from the Koran, and artifacts are forbidden," it declared.