Bismillah: Assalamo Alikum.
Few weeks ago, I asked my sister in Egypt to purchase for me an Arabic Bible (<b>Old Testament and New Testament combined</b>) for my own study. I’ve got many English Bible versions in my house here in China but nowadays, I am interested to read that book in my mother tongue, and to my surprise I discovered that it is not that easy to ‘<i>buy</i>’ the Bible from Egypt.
1- My sister went to a <b>Christian book store</b> in Alexandria to simply purchase an Arabic Bible, and she was told by the seller man that the Bible (which we call it in Arabic AL KITAB AL MUQADAS) is to be found <b>ONLY</b> in the Church.
2- She told him if it is possible for him to help her get one, he said: “<b>Normally they don’t give the Arabic Bible to Muslims OR TO EVEN CHRISTIANS</b>”... my sister says that all what they have in the book store are some interpretations of certain verses from the Bible, but no complete Bible is to be found <b>IN A CHRISTIAN BOOK STORE</b>.
3- He then asked for her tel no and promised to help her if he can get one.
4- My sister then invited her Christian friend to our home and she requested if she owns an extra complete Arabic Bible because my brother needed it.
5- Her friend told my sister that ‘<b>we don’t have even ONE complete Bible in our home</b>’ and it is very difficult especially for Muslims in Egypt to purchase one.
6- She also added that even if you go to Church to buy one, they will ask you to pay over <b>600 pounds (over US$100)</b> in order to buy one, because they know that it is very unreasonable price.
7- My brother knew about this story then he remembered once when his Christian friend told him that <b>all the Christians of Egypt are told by their priests NOT TO GIVE THE BIBLE TO MUSLIMS.</b>
Now I don’t care why they are hiding “<i>God’s word</i>” from us, all what I need to do is to obtain the Arabic Bible…
I don’t know if sister Muslimah could help me on this, or maybe she has an experience concerning the same matter in which she would like to share with us!!!
Salam
Wael.