Christian Detainees Released in Saudi Arabia

New hope has arisen for Religious Freedom in Saudi Arabia as Christian prisoners from East Africa have been released after a one month long arrestment for leading a private Christian worship service in Riyadh, Compass Direct has informed.

Five men, three from Ethiopia and two from Eritrea working in Saudi Arabia, were leaders of a small house church raided by Islamic religious police Muttawa during a service on 29th April 2005.

After one month of detainment these men were released on 30th May 2005 and allowed to return to their jobs. This is something that is very rare in Saudi Arabia, since foreign Christians that are caught meeting in their homes for worship are usually deported and the employers asked to terminate their work and residence visas.

"It’s a miracle. It’s not normal here for them to be released like this and allowed to go back to their jobs," a friend of the men told Compass. "They didn’t have to notify their sponsors or anything, and they are all back at work."

The men were questioned, initially blindfolded for the first week, however, they said they were not mistreated. After their first week of detention, they were housed in what one source called "a good place, not like those where most prisoners are kept."

Saudi Arabia has an official state religion of Islam, meaning that all citizens must be Muslims. The religious structure of the population is 93.4% Muslim, 0.7% Hindu, 0.5% Buddhist, and 1.4% non-religious/others. The Christian population makes up 4%; however 98% of Christians are expatriates.

Religious freedom is almost non-existent, and the government prohibits the public practice of other religions. Two years ago Deputy Interior Minister Prince Ahmad was quoted in the on 9th April 2003, issue of Arab News, declaring that non-Muslims residing in the Saudi kingdom were allowed to practice their religious beliefs only "at home and in private."

However, this right is not always respected by the government and over the past two months, at least three groups of expatriate Christians meeting privately for worship were raided and leaders arrested for several days or weeks. Some of them lost their jobs consequently and were deported.

Saudi Arabia is on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom's (USCIRF) list of countries of particular concern (CPC) since, as it stated in its report, the government continues to engage in an array of severe violations of human rights as part of its official repression of freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief.