By all credible accounts, the Saudi Arabian government is two-faced: they tell non-Muslims around the world that theirs is a free, peaceful nation while informing citizens that there is no freedom and that Islam does not provide them with the freedoms they desire.

The Curmudgeonly Clerk reveals some of that in a recent post:

In a document printed in English for non-Muslims, the Saudi government maintains that Qur'an 2:256 is a guarantor of human rights. On a governmental website written in Arabic, a state agency approvingly excerpts an argument that effectively maintains that there is no such thing as human rights. The government of Saudi Arabia dissembles because it must. For it to be honest about what it is would be an act of self-condemnation. It is less clear to me why our government finds it difficult to be honest about Saudi Arabia.

It's not entirely clear to me, either. Saudi Arabia is a repressive, totalitarian government that uses and extremist form of Islam in order to keep people repressed. Why should they be described as anything different?

Read More:

• Islamic Extremists
• Wahhabi Islam
• Religion in Saudi Arabia