CHRISTIAN WORSHIP IN JEDDAH: FROM CONGREGATION TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 JEDDAH 000308 SIPDIS SIPDIS RIYADH, PLEASE PASS TO DHAHRAN; DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ARP; DEPARTMENT FOR DRL/IRF - PLEASE PASS TO AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE JOHN HANFORD; PARIS FOR ZEYA; LONDON FOR TSOU E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/17/2016 TAGS: PGOV PHUM SOCI KIRF SA SUBJECT: CHRISTIAN WORSHIP IN JEDDAH: FROM CONGREGATION TO DETENTION REF: JEDDAH 237 Classified By: Consul General Tatiana Gfoeller for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY. The Consul General and ConGenOffs are conducting a long-term inquiry into Christian worship in Jeddah. So far, the investigation has revealed that the Christian population in the city is large and engages in regular, private, group worship. Despite the Kingdom's strict laws prohibiting group worship by non-Muslims, many Christians in Jeddah participated in Easter services on April 16 and plan to participate in Greek Orthodox Easter services on April 23. On April 18, the CG had the opportunity to meet with a leading Filipino Protestant preacher who spoke frankly about his Jeddah-based church, his congregation, and the case of a Filipino worshiper arrested and detained in Jeddah in March 2006 for possession of Christian leaflets. The man was officially arrested for drug-related charges but was released two weeks later after the Saudi authorities failed to produce evidence of the crime. END SUMMARY. CHRISTIAN SERVICES: NOT JUST FOR EASTER ¶2. (C) The Consul General and ConGenOffs are conducting long term inquiries into Christian worship in Jeddah, but focused even more attention on the subject for the month preceding Easter. (Reftel) The idea was to get a sense of the strength of the area's Christian population and ascertain whether or not services were more likely to be held during Easter, the holiest of Christian holidays. Interestingly, while groups organized themselves to hold special Easter services at homes, makeshift churches, and Consulates on Good Friday and Easter Sunday (and services are going on every evening at the Greek Consulate General for the Holy Week of April 17-23), April did not prove to be an exceptional time of year. While is it common knowledge that the British Consulate in Jeddah regularly holds Christian services, AmConGen Jeddah contacts revealed that the British Consulate also held two large Easter services - one Catholic, one Protestant - which were open to Jeddah's sizable Christian population. ¶3. (C) Another Consulate contact informed ConGenOff that a Western couple in Jeddah sponsors the monthly visits of an Irish Catholic priest who lives in Dubai. In addition to Bible study, these small masses held at the couple's house include holy communion. The priest organizes several masses during each of his visits. Similarly, a different group of Catholics organize Filipino-only services on a weekly basis. While this group meets weekly at different times and at different members' homes, they did not host their own Easter service, opting instead to attend the Catholic mass at the British Consulate. "It was safer this way," said one of female members of the all Filipino Catholic group. "We were afraid that the Saudis would be looking harder for us during Easter." This woman described their normal worship, adding that the group's fifty-plus members communicate with one another via cell phone text messaging services. All of the group's members discretely carry rosaries with them and most have small alters erected in their homes. While there are no Bibles, occasionally a Jeddah-based Irish priest will attend and bring one of his own. VIBRANT BORN AGAIN CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES OF JEDDAH BOAST OVER THIRTY "CHURCHES" ¶4. (C) On April 18, the CG met with a leading Filipino Protestant preacher who has lived and worked in Jeddah for twelve years. The preacher is a self-described Born Again Christian. He told the CG that he estimates that there are approximately 600,000 Filipinos in Saudi Arabia and, of that number, 240,000 reside in Jeddah alone. The large Christian Filipino population in Jeddah has given rise to a vibrant and active group of Protestant ministries. Collectively they are referred to as the "Churches of Jeddah". The ministry to which this preacher belongs is called "Lord Reigns" and, according to him, is comprised of some thirty churches in the Jeddah area. Another ministry called "Jesus is Lord" boasts twelve churches in Jeddah. While the Protestant population is large, the preacher only knows of one functioning Catholic ministry that worships in a single church housed in a private JEDDAH 00000308 002 OF 003 residence. ¶5. (C) The Filipino preacher holds regular, private services at his Jeddah home, which he has partially converted into a functioning church. He noted that he and his congregation are not proselytizing to the larger Jeddah community, nor are they seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity or provoke the Saudi government to take action against them. "It's not like we want to go to the Balad (old part of Jeddah) and push our faith...we just want a little freedom." ¶6. (C) While he expressed concern for his own safety and the safety of those to whom he preaches, he also described the measures he has taken to minimize the risk of being caught. He explained that he has helped soundproof the walls of his home by tacking up foam egg-crate mattresses. In addition, people enter his home two-by-two so as not to draw attention to themselves. At times, more than fifty Filipinos will express an interest in attending his services. In that case, he holds two separate ones on the same day. When asked whether or not he varies the times of his Friday services, he replied, "No, but sometimes people will come on Thursday and stay through Friday so they don't get caught." ¶7. (C) Of particular interest was the fact that the preacher's next door neighbor is a captain for the local Saudi religious police (motawah). ConGenOff inquired as to whether or not the motawah know about this makeshift church. The preacher replied, "I think so. (My neighbor) sits in his garden a lot and has seen people coming in. He asked me once if I was Protestant. When I said 'yes' he said, 'I like Christians.'" FILIPINO WORSHIPER DETAINED ¶8. (C) AmConGen Jeddah first heard about the arrest of a Filipino Christian man in Jeddah on April 9. A contact of the Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) reported that John "Jun" Batara, a Filipino national, was arrested on or about March 20 and was being detained at the Briman prison in Jeddah. During the hour-long meeting with the prominent Filipino preacher at the CG's residence, AmConGen Jeddah was able to confirm that Mr. Batara was, in fact, arrested around that time and was released approximately two weeks later. The preacher described the worshiper's ordeal in great detail, noting that the man works as an office employee at a local Saudi company. ¶9. (C) According to the preacher, Mr. Batara was a "Roman Catholic with a bad attitude" who "finally saw the light" and became a Born Again Christian. His office colleagues noticed the positive change in his personality and demeanor and asked him about it. Mr. Batara proceeded to tell a close colleague about his religion and showed him a pamphlet about Christianity which was written in Tagalog. The colleague asked Mr. Batara to translate it into English for him. Soon another Pakistani colleague heard about the pamphlet and asked to have it translated into Arabic. The preacher believes, but could not confirm, that the Pakistani man showed the translated pamphlet to someone else who then informed the Saudi authorities about its existence. When asked by the CG whether or not Mr. Batara's Pakistani colleague inquired about the pamphlet as a "set-up", the preacher said that he did not believe so. ¶10. (C) Mr. Batara was arrested on trumped-up drug charges. While in jail, the local guards would go to him and say, "You are so courageous. Why don't you become a Muslim? You would be a good one." Mr. Batara resisted, stating repeatedly that he was Christian. Incidentally, the Filipino preacher informed the CG that he, too, has been told that he would "make a good Muslim" and has been asked to convert to Islam on a number of occasions. The CG remarked that she met a Filipino man residing in Saudi Arabia who converted to Islam six times because he was paid by the imams of six different mosques to do so. ¶11. (C) At one point, Mr. Batara was being held in a cell with five other Saudi men. "He felt that something was going to happen to him, so he prayed. He was almost raped, but a large Saudi man in a pure white thobe suddenly appeared out JEDDAH 00000308 003 OF 003 of nowhere, pulled him away by his shirt collar and put him in another cell before they could do it. He was saved," recounted the preacher, clearly implying that a miracle had occurred. NOTE. There is a standing history of young Filipino men being sexually exploited by Saudi men in the Kingdom. The preacher himself admitted that he, too, had been solicited by Saudi men to engage in homosexal activities in exchange for money. With resigned sorrow he concluded that young Filipino men wee only in the Kingdom to be "used" by Saudi men. The preacher's outlook makes Mr. Batara's "mirale" in prison all the more significant. Mr. Batar, confined and without defenses, was in the maimum danger zone for succumbing to this pattern of victimization when he was in his shared jail cell. If Filipino men are often raped by Saudi men, the fact that Mr. Batara escaped unscathed can only be attributed to divine intervention. END NOTE. ¶12. (C) In the end the Saudi authorities could not produce any evidence of the drug charges and so, accordingly, released Mr. Batara after two weeks. The CG inquired about Mr. Batara's demeanor in the aftermath of his arrest. The preacher said that he was doing well and had even been promoted at his company since his detainment. While this is the only recent arrest case that the CG's contact was aware of, the Filipino preacher did say that his Christian friends in Khamis Mushait and Abha (both in the Western Province) are concerned for their safety. He had received reports that they had been regularly harassed by the Saudi authorities. 13.(C) NOTE. The CG framed this entire confidential discussion with the Filipino preacher in terms of the USG's larger interest in human rights issues. She discussed DRL and the Department's Office of International Religious Freedom as two initiatives undertaken by the USG, generally, and the State Department, specifically, to address these issues. The CG concluded the meeting by assuring the preacher that their conversation was confidential, and by reminding him that the lines of communication with the Consulate are always open to discuss this and similar human rights related issues. END NOTE. Gfoeller