The Gathering Storm: Religious Freedom: A Pluralist Street with No Address in Saudi Arabia

Rick Santorum
Posted: Wednesday, August 4, 2010


THE GATHERING STORM

Publication Date: August 4, 2010

Should there be a mosque near Ground Zero? Many including Debra Burlingame, sister of one of the pilots killed on 9-11, eloquently argue no. The growing debate centers on whether or not the proposed Cordoba House, a mix between a mosque and an Islamic cultural center, should be built near Ground Zero in NYC. Those who are opposed have concerns over its objectives, the sources of its funding, and the agenda and ties of its imam. This debate has been framed as a symbolic lack of sensitivity to the victims of 9-11 or as Islamic extremism's triumph in "sheep's clothing" of interfaith dialogue versus faithfulness to the core values of religious freedom and free speech in America. Yet the debate also draws attention to the enormous discrepancy between religious freedom in the United States for Muslims and others and the lack of religious freedom in the key strategic partner of Saudi Arabia. Given the fact that 15 of 19 of the Islamic terrorists aboard the planes which created Ground Zero were from Saudi Arabia, this is no small national security concern.

Saudi Arabia is a Sunni majority Muslim nation governed by King Abdullah and the location of the holiest sites in Islam. In Saudi Arabia, the official interpretation of Islam is based on the writings of 18th century Islam scholar Muhammad ibn Abd' Wahhab who advocated a strict obedience to Islamic law, believing that all ideas added to Islam after its first three centuries should be eliminated. Consequently, economic and social reforms, particularly religious freedom, rights for women and minorities, and participatory democracy, are largely opposed by the government.

Amidst the pious aura of Saudi Arabia, however, the government and key institutions in society consistently and egregiously ignore religious freedom for other sects of Islam or other religious faiths including the "People of the Book" of Judaism and Christianity. Citizens must be Muslim and non-Muslims are not able to set foot in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, sight of the annual Hajj. Since 2000, the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has labeled Saudi Arabia a "country of particular concern" for its religious freedom violations and the State Department has designated it as such since 2004 stating that "freedom of religion is neither recognized nor protected under the law and is severely restricted in practice."

The government prohibits public religious displays of other faiths and discriminates against Shi'a Muslims as well as other Sunni Muslims who do not adhere to the official interpretation of Sunni Islam. No religious buildings other than mosques are allowed in Saudi Arabia. During the past year, several Christians were detained for non-public, non-Muslim worship. The Commission to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice(CPVPV), a government body that employs 15,000 people throughout the nation, enforces many of these restrictions. Foreign workers are also marginalized on the basis of religion and only Muslims are allowed to be citizens of Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia's religious freedom offenses extend from discrimination and exclusion to indoctrination and radical promotion. Nina Shea, Director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom, cites language used in Saudi textbooks as evidence of extremist conditioning. She notes, for example, a 2009 ninth grade book teaches, "Jews and Christians are enemies of the believers, and they cannot approve of Muslims." The 2010 USCIRF Saudi Arabia report also specifies that there continues to be accounts of funds in Saudi Arabia being, "used globally to finance religious schools, mosques, hate literature and other activities that support religious intolerance, and in some cases, violence toward non-Muslims and disfavored Muslims."

Yet there are small signs of hope. For example, in 2008 King Abdullah initiated an inter-faith dialogue at the United Nations. There he denounced terrorism and cited religious intolerance as its genesis. More recently,the Council of Senior Ulema, Saudi Arabia's leading religious leaders, issued a limited denunciation of terrorism and its financing. Though seemingly trivial, these initiatives by the top echelon of Saudi leadership are indeed significant for a country that only reluctantly accepts any form of change. The Saudis are beginning to publically acknowledge the connection between indoctrination of hatred toward others and the violence which flows from Islamic extremism. Perhaps the Obama Administration should as well.

The supports tout the Cordoba House as a symbolic interfaith bridge building exercise within New York City- a city that incarnates diversity. More than 100 mosques already exist in NYC and more should be allowed. The United States, and much of the Judeo-Christian influenced Western world, has crossed this bridge from the side of religious intolerance to tolerance. Saudi Arabia has barely taken a step. It is in the national security interest of the United States, and in the interests of many religious groups, to work with Saudi Arabia to ensure that they too eventually traverse this divide and began to change educational and social mores that create fertile ground for acts of violent hatred in Saudi Arabia and around the world.