by Steven W. Mosher
The Saudi royal house prides itself as the guardian of the Muslim faith, and seeks to ensure that daily life on the Arabian Peninsula is dominated by Islamic practices. The two holiest sites of Islam — Mecca and Medina — are under its care, and it welcomes, in non-COVID times, millions of Hajis — Muslim pilgrims from all over the world — to these cities each year.
In other words, the keepers of the keys to the Kaaba — Islam’s most sacred shrine — aspire to play the same role in the Islamic faith as the Vatican does in the Catholic one.
One would think that the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Riyadh, which took place in December, would have provided an opportunity for the Saudis to bring up China’s brutal mistreatment of its Muslim minorities. But, despite signing cooperation agreements with China on almost everything imaginable, the Uyghurs apparently went unmentioned.
Instead, the press was full of feel-good stories about how Xi had brought rain to Riyadh and how the Arab world was flocking to learn the Chinese language.
To be fair, the Vatican has not been exactly heroic in standing up for Catholics in China either.
But then the slow-rolling destruction of the Christian faith in China has not been accompanied by mass incarceration, involuntary servitude, sterilization and abortion campaigns, and forced organ transplantation.
Read the entire article here: New York Post
