Wednesday, August 8, 2012

First Saudi Woman publicly announces her Faith in Christ

By Michael Ireland
Senior International Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

SAUDI ARABIA (ANS) -- According to Mohabat News (www.mohabatnews.com ) , internet sources as well as independent Shi'ite websites that promote Shi'ite thoughts and beliefs in Iran, reported last week that a Saudi woman who introduced herself as "Maryam" announced in a video published on the internet that she has forsaken Islam and converted to Christianity.
Apparently, she is the first Saudi-Arabian woman to become a Christian.

The new convert said in the published video that she hasn't removed her Hijab for fear of her life and to keep her identity unknown.

Maryam reveals her conversion to Christianity in a video. (Courtesy: Mohabat News).
The publishing of the video on the internet has angered Saudi officials and Muftis. They highly criticized the video and called urgently for necessary measures to stop evangelism in Saudi Arabia.

Mohabat News says this has made Saudi officials extremely angry.

“It is to the extent that they called to take necessary measures to deal with Christian evangelism in Saudi Arabia,” the news agency said.

According to the news agency: “It must be said that this is not the first time that a Saudi-Arabian citizen has converted to Christianity. Similar situations have happened before, but 28-year-old Maryam is the first Saudi woman to publicly announce in a published video that she has left Islam and converted to Christianity.”

In the short video, Maryam says: "I have quit the darkness of Wahhabi Islam and entered the light of Christianity. I dreamt that I needed to do this. Jesus Christ came to visit me in my dream and gave me the name of Maryam (Arabic pronunciation of Mary)."
She added, "The morality police's treatment caused me to not take fasting and prayer seriously and to eventually convert to Christianity."

Mohabat News explains that prior to this, an Arabic-language satellite TV channel, Al-Haqiqa, which broadcasts Christian programs to the Arab world, published an audio file and attributed it to a Kuwaiti prince, "Abdollah Al-sabah."
Mohabat News says the TV channel claimed that the Kuwaiti prince was a member of the ruling family in Kuwait. In the audio file, a man believed to be prince "Abdollah Al-sabah" said that he had newly left Islam and converted to Christianity.

Also, the news agency says that Vatican officials confirmed in 2007 that they are negotiating with Saudi princes to establish a Catholic church in Saudi Arabia. However, Saudi religious leaders strongly objected to the plan.

Saudi Arabia, with a population of 26 million, is one hundred percent Muslim. However, reports coming out of the country as well as other Arabic countries, indicate that the tendency towards Christianity is increasing in these countries, the news agency said.

The country imposes an extremely strict form of Sharia law. The official religion in Saudi Arabia is Wahhabi Islam which is an extreme version of Islam.
The country's monarchy regime claims that their constitution is totally based on the Quran and Sharia law. According to Sharia law, anyone who leaves Islam may be killed. Thus, most of those who have converted to another religion keep it secret.


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