This is a report about censorship around the world. Many groups and governments have censored books for different reasons. One book that has received a lot of censorship is the Bible. It is censored because
of its good teachings and takes away power from the government. There are a number of examples where this is happening today. In happens mainly in Non-Christian and Communist countries such as Saudi Arabia, Cuba, China, Iran and Russia. For example;
In Saudi Arabia, distributing Bibles by non-Muslims, is banned. A sign at a Saudi Arabian airport says travelers should surrender their non-approved religious books to officials before entering the country. They allow western families to bring in their own Bibles, if they do not bring in too many.
In China, the government has published a list of “prohibited objects” for the 2008 Olympics in the village where athletes will stay. To the surprise of many, Bibles are among the objects that will not be allowed. The Spanish newspaper, La Razon said the rule was one of a number of “signs of censure and intolerance” towards religious objects, particularly those used by Christians in China.
In Cuba, the prison in Camaguey, Cuba, banned the Bible from inmates’ cells. According to Aid to the Church in Need, “Nine political prisoners, several of whom are journalists, used to read texts of the Bible aloud from their cells so that other prisoners around could listen. It was an original way to study the Bible and get spiritual support to these prisoners who are very badly treated.” Few Bibles are allowed into the prisons. In Iran, police in Tehran beat a man for having a Bible in his car. According to Iran Focus, a Christian newspaper, “he was subjected to lashes on the back and underwent physical and psychological torture.
Even in some parts of the U.S., the Gideons’ Bible distribution has been banned by some American school districts. It has even been banned in residence halls at the University of Edinburgh because it is discriminatory. In Russia, many translations of The Bible were banned by the “Index Librorum Prohibitorum” in the Catholic Church. During the Cold War, Gorbachev banned all exploitation of Bibles up until 1988. Myanmar (formerly Burma) has banned translation of the Bible into the country’s native languages, yet limit the control of trafficking Christian literature in certain circumstances.