MariaRegina
Oh, its more than just ignore Christians, it against the law to practice Christianity in Saudi Arabia. When you arrive at customs, they search your luggage. Bibles and other Christian symbols are confiscated and destroyed. If you refuse to hand these items over to the Saudi Customs Agent, you're not allowed into the country.
Loving one's enemy doesn't mean we are silent toward injustice.
In fact, to remain silent could be committing the sin of omission.
We can love our enemy, but when we see him oppressing another human being, we don't remain tolerant by being silent.
They made this mistake in Holland when they allowed in large numbers of Muslims from Somalia. In the name of tolerance, they didn't respond to women being beaten, because in Somalia Islamic culture, a man beating his wife is perfectly legitimate. However, after several women were beaten to death, the Dutch law enforcement officials had to begin enforcing Dutch law.
We don't have to tolerate the intolerant when their tradition is immoral.
Jim
Again, this is the reason why I do not prefer the use of the word "toleration."
It is not a Christian virtue, and never has been.
Whether the Saudi Muslims
tolerate or
do not tolerate Christians, is really NOT the question. If the Saudi Muslims are tolerating us, they are ignoring us. If they are not tolerating us, then they are actively persecuting/killing us.
And we in return must truly love them and preach Christ to them by our love and our lives. We cannot merely tolerate them or be intolerant, as that would violate the law of love given to us by Christ Himself. Should not we as Catholics be willing to offer our lives if a Muslim is in danger of death and our actions could save them?
Think about that.
For example, if an innocent Muslim child is in danger of death because a big truck is bearing down on him/her, wouldn't you risk your own life to save him or her? It is this kind of love that gives a positive witness of our calling as Christians.
Read the
Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) for the Catholic teaching on this matter. Indeed, according to several Eastern Orthodox Bishops and Priests from different jurisdictions, including Father Thomas Hopko of the OCA, the CCC is well written and there are no theological errors in it.
I now understand why there is so much division in the Christian Coptic Church in Egypt and in other Muslim nations.
The Bishops there are preaching love, but some of the Christians are preaching hatred.
Because of the love being shown by Christians in Muslim lands, thousands of Muslims are coming to Christ every year.
They remain as part of the underground and suffering Church. Looking at these Christians, one might suspect that they are Muslims, but they are Christians who cannot tell their relatives or friends. Otherwise, they would be martyred for the true faith.
Coptic Christians and Saudi Christians know this. If they were to engage the Muslims in mortal combat, thousands of these secret Christians would be killed.
I am a member of the Antiochian Eastern Orthodox "Catholic" Church. Many of my brethren in Syria and in Lebanon find themselves in a Muslim land where their freedoms are being restricted, and where the opportunity to evangelize is everywhere present, but this opportunity also provides the very possibility of martyrdom.