Christianity in Saudi Arabia

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Accurate religious demographics are difficult to obtain in Saudi Arabia,^[1] but it is believed that there are approximately 1.8 million Christians in Saudi Arabia.^[2] The Saudi government has allowed local travel groups to issue tours for Christian tourists to access biblical sites in Saudi Arabia since it is believed by many Christians that the real site of Mount Sinai is found inside the country.^[3][4]

Early history[]

Christians had formed churches in Arabia prior to the time of Muhammad in the 7th century. Ancient Arab traders had traveled to Jerusalem for trade purposes and heard the gospel from St Peter (Acts 2:11) and Paul the apostle spent several years in Arabia (Galatians 1:17), later further strengthened by the ministry of St Thomas who went to Arabia, Persia and later to the Indian subcontinent.

One of the earliest church buildings ever discovered by archaeologists is located in Saudi Arabia; known as Jubail Church, it was built around the 4th century.

Some parts of modern Saudi Arabia (such as Najran) were predominantly Christian until the 7th to 10th century, when most Christians were expelled or converted to Islam or left the region via the Sea route to Asia, with which merchant trade already existed, others migrated north to Jordan and Syria and settled into those new places. Some Arab Christians who remained lived as crypto-Christians, or secret Christians. Some Arabian tribes, such as Banu Taghlib and Banu Tamim, followed Christianity.

Ancient Arabian Christianity has largely vanished from the region. The main reason for is Prophet Muhammad's direct orders to eliminate Jews and Christians from Arabia.

Sahih Muslim 1767 a

It has been narrated by 'Umar b. al-Khattib that he heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: "I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslim".

Musnad Ahmad 201

Jabir bin ‘Abdullah said:

Umar bin al-Khattab told me that he heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say:

“I shall certainly expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula so that I will not leave anyone but Muslims".

Musnad Ahmad 215

It was narrated that Umar said: "If I live, in sha Allah, I shall certainly expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula".

Persecution by Muslims[]

On June 15, 1858, 21 Christian residents of Jeddah, then an Ottoman town of 5,000 predominantly Muslim inhabitants, were massacred, including the French and British consuls, by "some hundreds of Hadramites, inhabitants of Southern Arabia", maybe as a retaliation after the repression by the British of the Indian Rebellion of 1857-1859. 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.^[5][6][7][8]

International Christian Concern (ICC) protested what it reported as the 2001 detention of 11 Christians in Saudi Arabia, for practicing their religion in their homes.^[9] In June 2004, at least 46 Christians were arrested in what the ICC described as a "pogrom-like" action by Saudi police. The arrests took place shortly after the media reported that a Quran had been desecrated in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.^[10]

Community today[]

There are more than 1 million Roman Catholics in Saudi Arabia. Most of them are expatriate Filipinos who work there, but are not Saudi Arabian citizens.^[1][11] As of 2008, the percentage of Christians of all denominations among the roughly 1.2 million Filipinos in Saudi Arabia was about 90%.^[12] 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.^[12]

Saudi Arabia allows Christians to enter the country as foreign workers for work or tourism, but does not allow them to practice their faith openly. Saudi Arabia accepts the private practice of religions other than Islam. Bringing a Bible and other types of religious texts are allowed into the country as long as it is for personal use.^[13]

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.^[12] Conversion of a Muslim to another religion is considered apostasy,^[12] a crime punishable by death if the accused does not recant. There have been no confirmed reports of executions for either crime in modern times.^[12] The Government does not permit non-Muslim clergy to enter the country for the purpose of conducting religious services.^[12] 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.^[14]

Christians and other non-Muslims are prohibited from entering the city of Mecca and the central district of Medina,^[15] i.e. in the vicinity inside of King Faisal Road, "1st Ring Road".

There are also Christian communities on expatriate compounds, including Catholic services in the Aramco compound in Dhahran.

Churches[]

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Currently there are no official churches in Saudi Arabia. According to the Society of Architectural Heritage Protection Jeddah and the Municipality of Jeddah, a long-abandoned house in Al-Baghdadiyya district has never been an Anglican church, contrary to the "'myth' that had spread on the Internet". However, in 1930 there was a non-Muslim cemetery in Jeddah.^[16]

Jubail Church[]

Discovered in 1986, the church ruins at Jubail originally belonged to the Church of the East, a branch of Eastern Christianity in the Middle East.

Recently, the government has put a fence around the church to prevent locals from attempting to vandalise the site.

Demographics[]

The percentage of Saudi Arabian citizens who are Christians is zero de jure,^[17] as Saudi Arabia forbids religious conversion from Islam and punishes it by death (see capital punishment in Saudi Arabia).^[12][18]

See also[]

• Human rights in Saudi Arabia
• Freedom of religion in Saudi Arabia
• Catholic Church in Saudi Arabia
• Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Saudi Arabia
• Protestantism in Saudi Arabia
• Capital punishment in Saudi Arabia

References[]