Pernicious Intolerance Continues in the Arabian Peninsula

In Saudi Arabia, a faux American ally whose only mutual interest with the West is the pumping of oil, a stark difference between our two ways of life came to the forefront a mere few days before tomorrow, the  thirteenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America.

Just days ago, the International Business Times reported that Saudi Arabia’s Haia, the Arabic term for that nation’s religious police – officially known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice – raided the private residence of a Christian Indian in the Saudi city of Khafji and arrested at least 27 Asian Christians who had met there for worship.

Garden State Sikh Association Appeals to Bridgewater Community

Note:  This is one of my longer posts, but one with which I hope you will resonate.

A view of the interior of the Sikh Temple in Bridgewater

 at the candlelight vigil Tuesday evening, August 7, 2012

. (Bergeron Image)

Early on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001 – a day that will forever live in infamy just as much as that of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor – I had just completed floor exercises, when I turned to the TV and began to view incredible scenes that would forever be seared into memory.  They depicted the unfolding of the evil-minded suicide attacks ordered by Osama bin Laden against civilians of the United States.

Days later, when Priscille and I entered the narthex of our church for Sunday morning Mass, there, posted on the walls, were eight-and-a-half by eleven-inch posters from the Garden State Sikh Association of Bridgewater, NJ, sharing its concerns about the aftermath of 9/11.