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A Christian Caught in Mecca; What Fate Awaits Him?

by Daniel Pipes
May 21, 2007
updated May 16, 2009

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Saudi traffic sign indicating that only Muslims may enter Mecca.

Nirosh Kamanda, a Christian from Sri Lanka, had a visa to work as a truck driver in Dammam, a town on the Persian Gulf. But after a short time, he illegally left his job and even more illegally entered Mecca – strictly forbidden to non-Muslims – where he sold goods near the Grand Mosque. When questioned by the police, he claimed he had overstayed his umra visa, which allows a Muslim to go on pilgrimage outside of the hajj season. But the police, benefiting from a new fingerprint system, quickly established who he was and arrested him. Kamanda admitted his identity and having come to Mecca to earn money. "I heard that Makkah is a safe place, where I could hide my identity."

Comment: (1) One wonders what Kamanda's fate might be. Deportation, prison, corporal punishment, or even death?

(2) The day the ban on non-Muslims from Mecca and Medina (see the road sign to this effect) emerges as an issue in intra-Muslim debates will be the day one can say that reform of the religion has begun. (May 21, 2007)

May 16, 2009 update: Two years on and I find no word of Kamanda's fate. If anyone knows it, please write in.

Related Topics: Islam, Mecca and Medina, Saudi Arabia receive the latest by email: subscribe to daniel pipes' free mailing list This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.