Believers Arrested at Prayer Meeting

In SAUDI ARABIA, 35 Ethiopian Christians were arrested on December 15 during their weekly prayer meeting. Officially the men and women were accused of mixing (or being in the same room) with the opposite gender, but a Saudi official told a believer’s employer that they were arrested for practicing Christianity.

Ask God to encourage them and bring about their release. “Make me know Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths.”

LEARN MORE: Praying in Saudi Arabia

Although Saudi Arabia is considered to be 100% Muslim, some non-Muslims, many of whom are foreigners, do live there. Christians are forbidden from gathering publically for worship, and even those who gather in private can face raids from the “Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice” and from the Ministry of the Interior.

“Mixing with the opposite sex” was the official charge against 35 Ethiopian Christians arrested at a prayer meeting in December. International Christian Concern explains, “In Saudi Arabia, it is illegal for men and women (non-family) to be in the same room together.” A church leader from Saudi Arabia, however, reported,

The Saudi officials are accusing the Christians of committing the crime of mixing of sexes because if they charge them with meeting for practicing Christianity, they will come under pressure from the international human rights organizations as well as Western countries. In fact, when an employer of one of the detainees asked for the reason for their employee’s arrest, the Saudi official told him that it was for practicing Christianity.

Please pray for these believers, who were brave enough to gather for prayer in Saudi Arabia.

“When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went into his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God…. Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king declared to Daniel, ‘May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!’” –Daniel 6:10-11, 16