Good for the Goose, Good for the Gander?

Cross-posted from WhereIStand:

For the second time in recent months, a British airline is coming under fire for it’s decision to comply with Saudi Arabia’s religiously oppressive laws rather than honor the religious liberty of its flight attendants: (Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin)

A second airline is embroiled in a religious row after a stewardess decided to take bmi to an employment tribunal because it refused to allow her to carry a Bible on flights to Saudi Arabia.
The stewardess, who has not been named, claims that she has been subject to discrimination because of her faith.

She is understood to have deep religious convictions and carries a Bible with her at all times.

But bmi, which is the only British scheduled carrier to fly to the country after British Airways pulled out of the route, insisted that it was only following Foreign Office advice.

The dispute has erupted as British Airways seeks to settle its own dispute with Nadia Eweida, a Heathrow check-in worker, who has been banned from wearing a cross on a necklace while on duty.

A spokesman for bmi said the airline was complying with Saudi law and added that the stewardess had been offered the opportunity to switch to working on its short-haul routes. It could not, however, alter its long-haul rosters to accommodate her.

The Foreign Office website informs travellers to Saudi Arabia: "The importation and use of narcotics, alcohol, pork products and religious books, apart from the Koran, and artefacts are forbidden."

A spokesman said last night that the Saudi authorities would automatically confiscate a Bible from anybody trying to bring one into the country and it would not be returned.

Well, that’s why you carry a spare. And what better way to bring Bibles to people who don’t have them. Take enough flights in and the whole of Saudi Arabia will be covered with them.

What this story highlights for me is the inequitable stance of Islam towards Christianity.  

On one hand, in most western countries, Islam is freely practiced. Muslims build Mosques and Islamic Centers all over America, where they want. When Muslims arrive in the US, more people study Islam to understand their neighbors. In their own personal conduct, many Muslims call for the firing of academics who point out historical faults of Islam, and as I recently mentioned call for legal sanction against those who speak out against their religion. 

In Muslim Countires, the arrival of Christians is somewhat less welcomed:

It was midnight when officers burst into their home and abruptly awakened Eskinder Menghis and his wife and three children. They walked out to find agents with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Interior ransacking their home.

“What are you doing? You have no right to destroy our home like this.”

“And you have no right to practice your religion in the land of Mohammed! You were warned before you came to leave your religion behind.” The officer pushed Eskinder out the door as the others gathered up the Bibles, hymnals, photos albums, audiotapes, and anything else they could use as evidence.

Eskinder was brought to the police headquarters for interrogation, leaving behind his frightened wife and children. Eskinder and his family are Ethiopian Christians. They are among the many foreigners who make up one-third of Saudi Arabia’s population, working in the oil-rich nation. Many of these foreigners are Christians who face a terrible predicament when it comes to expressing their faith.

Many Christians never intend to practice their faith when they go to work in a Muslim nation. But once under the dark cloud of Islam, they begin to look toward heaven and find fellowship with other believers around them. Many even start to witness to their Muslim employers. In Saudi Arabia, converting a Muslim to Christianity carries a death penalty for both parties.

And here is the key point. Islam has no toleration at all, whatsoever for Christians actually practicing faith. Show me a majority Islamic Country where Christians enjoy the same rights and freedom as Muslims do in Majority Christian Countries like the United States. You won’t find it.

Groups like CAIR cry, "Tolerance."  in America when Islam is tolerated. They demand censure and severe punishment for those who dare disagree with the teachings of Islam. Yet, while their co-religionists run amuck persecuting Christians, they have nothing but silence. We get treated to prattle about Islam reverring Jesus, while at the same time every place where Islam exists persecutes Christians mercilessly. 

Hey, CAIR, if you truly reverence Christ and his followers, show it by standing up to your international brethern. Talk is cheap.

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