The percentage of Saudi Arabians who are Christians is, officially, zero.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an Islamic theocratic monarchy in which Islam is the official religion. Although no law requires citizens or passport holders to be Muslim, almost all citizens are Muslims.
Non-Muslims are prohibited from entering the cities of Mecca and Medina, Islam’s holiest cities.
There are, though, more than a million Roman Catholics but they are non-citizen expatriates who have gone to Saudi Arabia to work. These expatriate Christians are not to openly practice their faith so there are no official churches there. However, the expatriate Christians in the country have been allowed to hold services in homes or large school buildings inside gated communities. Attacks against Christians and human rights abuses, even against Shai Muslims, have in fact been on the rise since King Abdullah was elected to power in 2005.
Present Day Persecution and Attacks on Christians
July 2001 – two underground Christian leaders arrested in Jeddah, one tortured into revealing at least six names of other leaders; part of a campaign to eliminate house churches there.
January 2002 – three Christians from Ethiopia are suspended with chains and lashed 80 times each with a flexible metal cable in front of more than 1,000 detainees, with no follow-up medical care.
September 2004 – a Christian from India is sentenced to 10 months and 300 lashes for selling liquor—no mention of biblical excerpts and documentary videos or movies about the Bible he actually sold. Hung upside down he is kicked in the chest and ribs, whipped with electrical wire on his back and on the soles of his feet.
August 2008 – More than a dozen Christians accused of worshipping in their homes are ordered to be deported.
August 2008 – a young woman is executed; set afire by her own father, an officer of the Muttawa (morality police), who first cut out her tongue. He is obliged by honor to cleanse his family according to the rules of the rigid Wahhabi doctrine.
January 2009 – a 28-year-old Christian man is arrested for describing his conversion on his Web site and criticizing the kingdom’s judiciary.
January 2010 – a Filipino Catholic nurse working at Riyadh hospital reports having seen at least 50 Catholic or Christian Filipino migrants accept Islam under duress; being told they must become Muslim to keep their jobs.
December 2010 – reports of along with other Islamic countries Saudi Arabia pours millions of dollars into propagating Wahhabism in the Balkans—the version of Islam that calls for attacks on non-Muslims.
February 2011 – Saudi Arabia enacts one of the most stringent blogging regulations. Non-citizens in the country are not permitted to write about news and be very careful about religion. (By HubPages)
