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  • 2015-12-17 (xsd:date)
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  • New Punishment for Reading the Bible in Saudi Arabia? (en)
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  • On 13 December 2015, a Facebook user published the image below with a claim that the injuries depicted were inflicted as part of a new punishment for reading the Bible in Saudi Arabia. Even taken solely as a rumor, the new punishment was not all that new; earlier versions of the claim appeared on anti-Islam blogs as early as May 2013, including the same picture, but stipulating that the photo was included for illustrative purposes only. Oddly, the blog didn't describe any specifics of the new punishment, asserting only that one existed: Given that the blog also said that the image was unrelated to the unspecified punishment, what precisely was supposedly happening to Bible readers remained unclear. Naturally, the image became attached to the rumor without the annotation indicating that the two were unrelated, and social media users began claiming that the photograph documented a physical punishment. Later versions on similar anti-Islamic blogs filled in the blanks based upon the unrelated image: Neither reading nor possessing a copy of the Bible for personal use in Saudi Arabia is illegal. According to comprehensive travel directives provided by the United Kingdom, restrictions on the Bible are related solely to proselytizing: That information was reiterated on the web site ExpatArrivals, distinguishing the personal possession and use of Bibles from Bibles imported with the intent of evangelizing: By all credible accounts, reading the Bible is not illegal in Saudi Arabia. However, importing a quantity of bibles with the intent of converting Muslims away from Islam is against the law and may warrant harsh penalties. On the web site for Gideons International (an evangelical Christian organization devoted to distributing copies of the Bible for free), a document details countries where we cannot yet share God’s Word. In addition to Saudi Arabia, the organization lists Afghanistan, Algeria, Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, North Korea, Peoples Republic of China, Somalia, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Yemen among countries in which the group is prevented from distributing Bibles. As for the photograph, it is demonstrably not related to any new punishment for reading the Bible in Saudi Arabia. Its first appearance on the internet dated back to April 2010 (possibly earlier) and it was widely interpreted to be a photograph of a gruesome accident, not a brutal punishment. (en)
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