It's selectively recounts the story of the Kuwaiti sentenced to death. It neglects to mention that he had long been an enfant terrible. During the 80s, when the Iranians were financing bombings in Kuwait, as well as the firing of the occasional surface to surface missile, the man proclaimed himself a die-hard supporter of the Ayatollah Khomeini, much to the chagrin of most Kuwaitis. When he found Jesus, for whatever reason, he was told by the government that that was fine, just not to make a big show of it. Instead he insisted on publicity stunt after publicity stunt, and in effect dared the Royal Family to either shut him up, or look like wimps. Once the death penalty was passed, the gov't repeatedly offered to send him to any Christian country of his choosing, just as long as he didn't go around causing problems at home. He refused, and to my knowledge is still alive.
The claim that being Christian in Iraq illegal is an outright lie. Iraq has a Christian minority of ~ 15%, and, until gulf war 2 was by far the most tolerant of any Arab country, having Tarik Aziz, a Christian, and Catholic I believe, as its "vice-president." The complete separation of mosque and state fell by the way side after the Gulf War, but the notion that one out of every 10 Iraqis have been put to death its bizarre. Why does the author completely ignore the existence of some of the earliest Christian communities which still are around? Ignorance?
The problem in Egypt [10% Christian] is a familiar one; that of a corrupt, sclerotic regime, with an upper class belonging to a different religion. The lower classes take it out on the upper classes, just as we saw in Europe in the last century. Tribal strife in the Sudan, a nation that was never meant to be, is nothing new, and shouldn't be that surprising when one considers that the Dinkas were headhunters well into the 1930s.
Some of the comments, such as those about the Saudis are more accurate; even there though, there is a great deal of "the law is on the books, but as long as you don't shake the boat, we won't enforce it." I obviously would like to see a more liberal regime, with the freedoms we take for granted, but when I consider how poor and backward the KSA was not that long ago, and then think of how we treated our religious minorities when we of European origin were that backward [Jews were obliged to live in ghettos or barred from some countries well into the 1850s, under FDR we sought to curtail Jewish immigration, and full civil rights only came in the 60s] I feel one can say that whatever the Mullahs may claim, the problem is not Islam per se, but countries with few freedoms and no separation of worship and state.
Yes, the Middle East is a very troubled region, but making up more problems, in an effort to blame a convenient enemy does not help the situation much. The real enemy, I feel, are the bloated and corrupt states that stifle innovation, deny their peoples freedoms we hold to be our birthright.
The understatement of the year.