2023-06-24 16:23:45
The tourism sector in Saudi Arabia is flourishing following the kingdom allowed the issuance of tourist visas to foreigners regarding 4 years ago, but it did not occur to many that there would be extensive visits by Christians to archaeological sites, especially in the northwest of the Kingdom, in an area overlooking the Red Sea.
A lengthy newspaper report stated,The New York TimesIt was published on Saturday that Saudi Arabia wanted to attract tourists, but there was no expectation that evangelical Christians would visit the kingdom, which in the past only attracted Muslims to perform Hajj or Umrah.
She said that in the new era of the conservative Islamic kingdom, evangelicals became among its most enthusiastic visitors, and she mentioned the story of some Christian tourists who went to a remote desert area in northwestern Saudi Arabia, overlooking the Gulf of Aqaba.
She added that these tourists went to that area at the sea split that separates the kingdom from Egypt, and stopped on a barren beach, and the group included 15 tourists and gathered around Joel Richardson, a preacher from Kansas.
As the sun set under the mountains of the Sinai Peninsula, Richardson asked the group to imagine standing on the other side and remembering the story of Prophet Moses’ escape from Pharaoh’s army, and the parting of the sea.
The preacher opened the Bible and began to read. Two retirees from Florida, a pharmacist from Colorado, an accountant from Idaho and an Israeli archaeologist listened with interest.
The newspaper says that these were not the visitors that Saudi officials expected when they opened the country’s borders to receive tourists in 2019, seeking to diversify the oil-dependent economy and present a new face to the world.
They (officials) believed that adventurers would come first, or seasoned travelers looking for an unusual destination, such as yachtsmen who might visit the resorts the government is building on the Red Sea coast. And no one in the conservative Muslim kingdom planned for Christians.
Christians of all denominations, however, were among the first people to use the new Saudi tourist visas. Since then, their numbers have grown steadily, thanks also to information and YouTube videos arguing that Saudi Arabia, not Egypt, is the site of Mount Sinai, where the Jewish and Christian Bibles describe God’s Ten Commandments.
“It makes something you’ve believed in your whole life tangible,” Chris Gibson, 53, an accountant from Idaho involved in Richardson’s trip, who had never traveled outside the United States and Mexico before boarding a flight to Saudi Arabia in February, told the newspaper.
For decades, almost all the tourists who entered Saudi Arabia were pilgrims heading to Mecca, the cradle of Islam. Public practice of other religions was prohibited. Artificial Christmas trees were smuggled and sold as contraband.
The newspaper pointed out that this began to change with the coming to power of the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, as he announced that he would transform the kingdom into a global business center, unleashed a series of social changes, stripped the religious police of their powers, relaxed the dress code and lifted the ban. on women driving. He also oversaw an increase in political repression, silencing all dissenting voices.
With Saudi Arabia entering a new era, previously unimaginable events have become commonplace, according to the newspaper.
She noted that few Saudis dare to talk regarding complete religious freedom. Atheists, and even Muslims who question the teachings of Islam, can face imprisonment. But religious taboos are changing rapidly. Buddhist monks attended an interfaith gathering in the kingdom last year, and Jewish pilgrims recently planted palm trees in Medina, Islam’s second-holiest city. An American-Israeli man appeared in the capital, Riyadh, with a website announcing himself as “the chief rabbi of Saudi Arabia.”
The kingdom is changing very quickly, and government entities did not respond to requests for comment by the newspaper on Christian tours. Some Saudis in particular expressed amazement that expanding tourism is a priority as the country diversifies its economy.
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