How to smuggle a Bible into a Middle Eastern country

Me with contraband at Ali Al Salem AB Kuwait

The key to getting a Highly Illegal Bible into a middle eastern country like Saudi Arabia is to have it not "look" like a Bible.

Arab customs agents are not looking for a "book" as a Bible.

They are looking for a very nice book to be a Bible.  
They will zero right in on your burgundy, leather bound, thumb indexed, gold edged, gold embossed, Ryrie Study, KJV, silk built in book marked, fifty dollar Bible.  
It could be a Book Of Mormon or a cook book for all they know.  They would just figure it must be some infidel book since it's such a valuable looking book.

They get this idea because that's how they would expect someone to treat their holy book.  
That's how they treat the Koran.  
Muslims are horrified to hear that Christians "mark" in their Bibles or write in the margins or even bend pages to keep their place.  They would never do that to their personal copy of the Koran.

What you want is to take with you a Bible that simply looks like any other book.

I got into Saudi Arabia with a paper back "Good News For Modern Man".  Just a New Testament and looks like any other paperback book to somebody that can't read English.  I used to carry it to work every day in my back pack I had over my shoulder.  When we would come up to the gate of King Abdul Aziz Air Base the gate guard would want to go through our bags to make sure we weren't carrying bombs onto the base.

"Dude.  Why would I want to bomb my own equipment on your base?"

Anyway, I think they just liked going through our stuff.  Every time they'd see that Bible and pass right over it.  I honestly feel sure that, had they known that was a Bible, they would've at least taken it and probably also caused a big scene to give us all a hassle.

When the time came for me to go to Kuwait, I wanted to take my John MacArthur Study Bible.  I felt a bit more confident that they wouldn't try anything funny because it was after the Gulf War and Kuwait tends to treat us a bit better now days and I was told by several people that there'd be no customs.  We'd fly right to the base on a C-130.

Either way, what I did was, I took the nylon Bible cover off.  This particular Bible is just a hard back edition.  (Half the price of Bibles now days is just for the leather cover.  Cracks me up some times people paying fifty dollars for a leather bound Bible and then buying a seven dollar vinal cover with a zipper.)

Turns out Kuwait doesn't care anyway if you bring a Bible in.  Matter of fact, they have Christian churches in Kuwait City.  The lesson is still a good one.

The other thing that can be done, and this only works if you're in the military deploying to a middle eastern country, is to give your Bible to the chaplains before boarding the plane.

What those sneaky folks will do is put your Bible in with "Diplomatic Immunity" cases that are exempt from customs search.  This includes things like classified materials and cryptographic keys.  
Stuff like that we're just not going to let other people open up and look at.
"Exempt by diplomatic agreement."

Will the chaplains really put your Bible in there with that stuff?

Oh, you betcha.

"Can they do that?  I mean, are they allowed?"

Chaplains are full fledged officers in the US military and have certain abilities that others don't have.

When I was processing through to go to Saudi Arabia, they would have us go by several tables to process through different agencies.  Medical guys who'd look at shot records to make sure all your shots were up to date and Judge Advocate people to make sure your will was all up to date and we'd also have to see the chaplain.
These guys were sitting there with their table and all over the table were religious reading things, devotionals and stuff.
They asked if I had a Bible and I told them I didn't bring it because I didn't want it taken by customs.
That's when they told me that they could've put it in the diplomatic immunity cases.
They were a bit disappointed that I didn't bring a Bible.  They were absolutely giddy over the thought of smuggling a Bible into Saudi Arabia.
It's too bad. I would've done it for them.
But on their table they had a bunch of paperback Bibles and that's where I got the "Good News For Modern Man" that I took with me.
Like I said, nobody over there ever did know it was a Bible.

It also brings up the point that a good Bible to take, if you're just visiting, is one that you're not that emotionally attached to.  
You don't want them snagging that Bible handed down from your grandfather.  
Or the one that's got all your tedious notes from over the years.  
You want one that you just picked up from the Gideons, or a chapel, or the chaplains.

If they want to take it and rip it up in front of you, let'em.  

"There's plenty more where that one came from."

Where?

"Ha, ha.  You'll get nothing outta me. Bring on the lions. I'll never talk."

When my time came to leave came I kinda felt an affection for that little paperback Bible but I thought to myself, "This country's got darn few Bibles in it.  It would be a crime to take one out after it managed to get in."
So I left it on the shelf of the room I stayed in.

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