Domnic, is it possible that the Saudi sense of what is right or wrong (depiction of gods as images, non-Koranic religious texts) just clashes with the standards of others? If so, whose conceptions should hold valid in Saudi Arabia itself?
When I was a young student in West Germany many moons ago, I found that smooching on a train was quite acceptable, but a group of 15 well-pigmented twenty-something-year-olds from various parts of the Third World sharing a hearty joke on the same train caused consternation! We need to remind ourselves that religious tolerance wasn't a given in most parts of the world till the 19th century. I'm impressed by countries like Malaysia and Bangladesh where, for the most, religion is quite a personal matter contrary to the stereotypes we have and often promote about Muslims. (The latter has a fundamentalist problem in pockets, much like India.) I'm sure there must be many other such countries, which one has not visited. But, for some reason -- or is it, for a reason? -- Saudi Arabia is always created into the poster boy when we need to make a whipping boy of The Other! FN 2009/8/22 Domnic Fernandes <[email protected]>: > You are right, Rajan. Every non-Muslim is harassed > at the Saudi Arabian immigration > and customs office, but Hindus are indeed singled out > because they think they are > 'kaafir' - people without a religion. > No idols/religious pictures are allowed into the > Kingdom; when found, they are > dumped in a trash can right under one's nose. > What is shocking is that they don't even respect > our Holy Bible. When they come > across one, it, too, is sent to the trash can! -- FN +91-9822122436 P +91-832-2409490 Konkani adages http://konkani-adages.notlong.com/ Medieval Goa http://medieval-goa.notlong.com/
