Reports have indicated that a continuing problem is ocurring regarding abuses against the Bible and other Christian items in some parts of the Islamic world.
Rumours have emerged that visitors to Saudi Arabia, if possessing a Bible or other obvious symbols of Christianity, can have them confiscated by customs officials - according to religious rights campaigners.
This week, Danny Nalliah, an evangelical pastor born in Sri Lanka, who during the 1990s, spent two years in Saudi Arabia, in an interview said:
"It's a very well-known fact that if you have a Bible at customs when you enter the airport, and if they find the Bible, that the Bible is taken and put in the shredder."
"If you have more than one Bible you will be taken into custody and if you have a quantity of Bibles you will be given 70 lashes for sure - you could even be executed."
Another witness, a friend of his, a fellow Christian in Saudi Arabia, reported about a Catholic nun, who was in a transit lounge at the airport in Jeddah - the gateway to Mecca, used by millions of Hajj pilgrims each year - when at a custom desk she experienced an ungracious incident.
"They opened her bag, went through her prayer book, put the prayer book through the shredder ... took the crucifix off her neck and smashed it, tormented her for many minutes."
Finally, another Muslim official protested about the behaviour of the custom officials, pointing out that she was not entering the country but only in transit and would be leaving on the next plane.
