With friends like these: Muslim countries want us to respect them. Well, they should try respecting other people too. The British newspaper The Guardian reports that Saudi Arabia's religion cops have arrested foreign Filipino workers for allegedly practicing Christianity in that country.

The revelations come as five British men, detained in connection with anti-western terrorist bombings in the kingdom, await a trial date. Despite spending up to 15 months in solitary confinement they have not yet been charged.

The Guardian has revealed that a number of other men arrested in connection with the bombings and subsequently released were tortured by interior ministry officials seeking confessions. Our investigation also showed that the detained men could not have carried out the attacks as the Saudi authorities allege.

The Filipino torture victims were seized from prayer meetings by the Saudi religious police, the muttawa, who took them to Al Milaz prison.

Drawings smuggled out of the jail depict the Christians being lashed by prison guards, who urged them to confess to being priests and to convert to Islam.

One released prisoner says he was subjected to sleep deprivation techniques similar to those used on the Britons, and another claims that Filipino prisoners have been killed by guards in Al Milaz.

If Islam's the religion of peace, then I'm about 10 times more handsome than Russell Crowe.