Lebanese man gets 300 lashes, 6 years for helping woman convert to Christianity
A Lebanese man was sentenced to 300 lashes with a whip and six years in prison for his role in helping a Saudi woman convert to Christianity and flee the kingdom in the latest example of the religious intolerance that grips the region.
The court in the Eastern Saudi city of Khobar -- situated on the coast of the Persian Gulf -- also sentenced a Saudi man to two years in prison and 200 lashes for helping the young woman named Maryam -- who has been dubbed “the girl of Khobar” -- in her escape to Sweden to secure asylum.
Maryam, whose case has been closely followed in Saudi Arabia, criticized Saudi Arabia’s Sunni monarchy for instilling in her a hatred of Judaism and Christianity, according to the English-language Saudi Gazette. The Jeddah-based paper wrote that she “fell in love with the religions after she found peace in Christianity.”...
Dr. Steven J. Lawson | 10/11/2009
