A Christian Caught in Mecca; What Fate Awaits Him?

by Daniel Pipes
Mon, 21 May 2007
updated Sun, 16 Dec 2007

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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)

Related Topics: Islam, Saudi Arabia

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Reader comments on this weblog entry

Title	By	Date
caught in a web [200 words]	Rebecca Moulds	Dec 18, 2007 10:13
NO WORRIES ! [66 words]	Bill Corr	Dec 18, 2007 04:52
It has to begin somewhere & somehow [35 words]	David W. Lincoln	Dec 17, 2007 23:20
Mecca? [28 words]	Seth Ginsburg	Dec 17, 2007 14:38

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