Saudi Arabia: Non-Islamic Religious Items Verboten

You can't make this sort of thing up.

From the Saudi Arabian Airlines Travel Guide:

"Customs Regulations

"A number of items are not allowed to be brought into the Kingdom due to religious reasons and local regulations. These include alcoholic beverages, pork and pork products, prohibited drugs and narcotics, firearms, explosives, edged weapons and pornographic materials.

"Items and articles belonging to religions other than Islam are also prohibited. These may include Bibles, crucifixes, statues, carvings, items with religious symbols such as the Star of David, and others."

The first paragraph, I can understand.

As for the second paragraph, I'm afraid I understand it all too well.

That territory belongs, in effect, to the House of Saud, so I suppose I can't complain too much about what Abdallah bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud and his family do with their property.

Just the same, it's hard to argue that Islam can get along with a world that's in the Information Age, when the owners of the religion's birthplace seem unwilling to leap forward into the 18th century.