Saudi Arabia arrests South American soccer player for showing Jesus tattoo

From the You-Can-Make-This-Up Department, via Beliefnet:

Saudi Arabia’s religious police have arrested a South American soccer star in a shopping mall in the Saudi capital for failing to cover up his tattoo of Jesus.

Juan Pablo Pino, 24, who plays for the An-Nasr professional team was wearing a sleeveless shirt while walking with his young pregnant wife in a shopping mall in Riyadh, reported Asia News.

“The tattoo on his left shoulder led to the insults of some local Muslims,” reported the Vatican Insider newspaper. “The incident attracted the attention of the so-called ‘police for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice,’ who stopped the couple.”

Religion often seems to get in the way of sports in Iran. Remember the Iranian soccer player who refused to play in Israel? Of course, arresting a soccer player simply because he displayed a Christian image, offensive for sure, is hardly the worst thing happening in Iran.

Read the rest of the Pino story here.

CORRECTION: I really misread the opening words of the Beliefnet story. The player was arrested in Saudi Arabia, not Iran.