Update: Saudi Christian blog back online

Update:  The blog site http://christforsaudi.blogspot.com/ is back online now.  On a forum of the Google-run service, a staff member explained: "Just wanted to come in here and say thanks for your patience as we worked through this case. As you can imagine, there were many legal implications here and we had to make sure we dealt with this correctly.

Read below the earlier details of the case from February 3.

A Saudi national who has been writing openly on the internet about his decision to follow Jesus Christ has been arrested, and his blogspot platform has been blocked by Google ever since.

The 28-year-old blogger, Hamoud Bin Saleh, was arrested on January 13th because of “his opinions and his testimony that he had converted from Islam to Christianity,” according to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI). Serious concerns have been expressed about how the authorities may treat him, including fears that he may be executed for apostasy. This is the third time that Hamoud has been detained, having been held for nine months in 2004, and for one month in 2008.

“The efforts of the Saudi authorities to silence Hamoud do not come as a surprise; this so called ‘moderate Arab state’ is one of the worst abusers of basic rights and freedoms for Christians,” commented Arab Vision’s international director. “But it baffles us that Google should aid the Saudi authorities in blocking Hamoud’s site. ‘Violation of Blogger Terms of Service’ is the explanation given when you now try to access his blog page. Does Google consider conversion from Islam to the Christianity a violation? As a media organization working in the Arab World, we strongly protest against Google’s collaboration in and endorsement of censorship and human rights violation in Saudi Arabia.”

In a separate case, an Eritrean Christian, Yemane, who has worked in Riyadh for 25 years, was forced to move to another city last week after receiving three death threats within a few days, some from members of the religious police. Yemane was among 17 foreign pastors held by the Saudi authorities in May 2005, before diplomatic pressure led to their release. He has pastored an informal fellowship for ten years and recently handed over the leadership to others. Middle East Concern (MEC) reports that one of the members of the religious police thought to have been behind Yemane's arrest in 2005 is leading the current threats.

Arab Vision receives responses to its Christian TV programs from Saudi viewers every month. One of them said recently: “God bless you for this program. It helps us a lot because we cannot declare our faith openly here and there are no churches for us.” Arab Vision believes that many Saudis are opening up to Christianity as they are exposed to the Gospel through the internet and Christian radio and satellite TV broadcasts. The ones who are bold enough to declare their faith openly though, continue to suffer the consequences.