Saudi Arabia Criticized Over Religious Rights

For a long time now people have complained about the manner in which Saudi Arabia handles religion and religious minorities. The American government has generally turned a deaf ear to such complaints, probably because of need of Saudi oil. Now, however, the quasi-independent Commission on International Freedom has labeled Saudi Arabia a "Country of Particular Concern."

  MSNBC reports:

A department report assessing the state of religious freedom worldwide said that in Saudi Arabia, freedom of religion does not exist and is not recognized or protected under the country’s laws. The report also said that those who do not adhere to the officially sanctioned strain of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia can face “severe repercussions” at the hands of the religious police.

Preeta D. Bansal, the commission chair, said in an interview that she welcomed the addition of Saudi Arabia to the U.S. government’s “list of the world most egregious violators of religious freedom.” She said the commission has been advocating the inclusion of Saudi Arabia on the CPC list since legislation was approved in 1999 to evaluate the state of religious freedom around the world. Bansal said the commission’s stand was based not only on violations of religious freedom within Saudi Arabia’s own borders “but also its propagation and export of an ideology of religious hate and intolerance throughout the world.”

This report on Saudi Arabia is available here on this site, as well as the reports on all the other nations in the world.

Saudi Arabia is not at all happy with being labeled like this, though as far as I know no one has offered any good reasons for why they don't qualify. They have, in fact, qualified for a long time now but political pressure has kept them off. I'm not sure what has changed now, but it is an interesting development and it will be even more interesting to see how things progress. This designation does allow for sanctions to be imposed, but we all know that that won't happen.

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• Wahhabi Islam
• Religion in Saudi Arabia