Christians in Saudi Arabia face death or imprisonment

Hamoud Saleh Al-Amri, is a 28 year-old Saudi national who converted from Islam to Christianity. His disillusionment with Islam set in when he witnessed the executions of three Pakistanis convicted on drug charges. He set about a study of other religions. Heaving read how Jesus forgave - rather than stoned -a woman condemned for adultery, Bin Saleh decided to become a Christian. He wrote about this in his blog.

This soon came to the attention of the Saudi authorities. Saudi police arrested Hamoud Bin Saleh on Jan. 13 ”because of his opinions and his testimony that he had converted from Islam to Christianity,” according to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI). They also blocked his blog Masihi Saudi.
Surprisingly he was released by Saudi authorities at the end of March 2009 notwithstanding the fact that under Sharia law he could have been executed for apostasy. It is believed that pressure from human rights organizations such as the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) convinced the Saudi authorities to relent. However he has been banned from travelling outside Saudi Arabia or appearing in media according to Middle East Concern, a Christian organisation.

In August 2008 the daughter of a member of Saudi Arabia’s religious police was killed for writing in her blog- called Rania-about her belief in the Christian religion. She had her tongue cut out and was burned to death. Moslems who convert to Christianity may just "disappear".

Arab countries lack power to influence Iran on nuclear issue-Expert

On December 16 the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the United States, Britain, France, China, and Russia plus Germany, which make up the 5+1 group, met at the UN with representatives from nine Arab countries -including Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia- to discuss Iran’s nuclear programme.
Unfortunately little was achieved. In essence this was gesture politics. No Arab country will attack Iran at the behest of the US. In addition each has its own internal difficulties-whether ethnic,religious or economic.
MEHRNEWS.com quotes International affairs expert Ali Khorram as follows:

Khorram insisted that Arab countries cannot influence regional or international developments. For example, he said, although Arabs are aware of the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, they lack power to resolve this problem.

“The complexity of Iran’s nuclear issue is far greater than that of the Gaza Strip” and the Arab countries which have not been able to find a formula to resolve the Gaza crisis, are highly unlikely to influence Iran’s nuclear issue, he explained.

It is difficult to argue with the logic of this argument. It is highly unlikely that the incoming Obama administration will convince Iran to drop its nuclear development programme. This increases the probability of an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear installations.