Saudi Arabia
Religious Atmosphere:
93.4% of this country's people are Muslim with 79% being Sunni, and the remaining 13.4% being Shi’ite. Hindus make up 0.7% while Buddhists make up 0.5% and non-religious/others make up 1.4%. Christians make up 4% of the population but 98% of the Christian population are expatriates. The sacredness of the area to Muslims makes for a rather strict and harsh attitude towards non-Muslims and their religious activities.
Extremist Groups:
There are reports of religious vigilante groups who harass non-Muslims. The attitude and stance of the government likely gives these groups personal justification for their activities.
Government:
Islam is the state religion and all citizens must be Muslims. The government believes it has a sacred responsibility as the guardian of the two holiest shrines of Islam, Mecca and Medina. As a result, they desire to remove all non-Muslim influences. Towards this end, they have formed the Mutawwa'in, the religious police.
Public and private practice of any non-Muslim religion is restricted. Non-Muslims can be arrested, lashed, or deported for any religious activity that attracts the attention of the government.
The wearing of non-Muslim religious symbols is restricted.
The printing, possession, importing, or distribution of any non-Muslim religious material is banned.
In April of 2000 Prince Turki ibn Muhammad Saud Al-Kabir, the assistant undersecretary for political affairs in the Foreign Ministry, announced at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will form two human rights bodies, one independent and the other under the government. These bodies will investigate allegations of torture, monitor the implementation of human rights codes, and acquaint the public to the concept of human rights.
Saudi Arabia forbids missionary work by any religion other than Islam. Officially all religions other than Islam are banned and churches are not allowed. Unofficially the government acknowledges that many of the foreign workers are Christian and on Aramco civilian compounds, foreign Christians are generally allowed to worship in private homes or even hold services at local schools provided that it is not spoken of in public. This is a degree of unofficial tolerance that is not given to Judaism, or Atheism.
In theory, the government can search the home of anyone and arrest or deport foreign workers for owning religious icons and symbols, i.e. a Bible, or rosary. Yet, this generally does not occur on the Aramco compounds and the most common policy for foreign Christians is similar to the United States Armed Forces policy for homosexuals (Don't Ask, Don't Tell). The government tolerates the presence of Christian workers as long as they remain discreet and in the closet.
"Freedom of religion does not exist," the U.S. State Department's 1997 Human Rights Report on Saudi Arabia states. "Islam is the official religion, and all citizens must be Muslims. The government prohibits the public practice of other religions." "It is absurd to impose on an individual or a society rights that are alien to its beliefs or principles," Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz declared at the U.N. Third Millennium summit in New York City, New York on 6 September.
Foreigners must conform to local practices in public. Conservative dress is expected, especially for women who travel to rural areas. Shops and restaurants close five times a day for prayer, and public displays of foreign religious or political symbols are not tolerated. During Ramadan eating, drinking, or smoking in public during daylight hours is prohibited. Foreign schools are often required to teach a yearly introductory segment on Islam.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) -- A court sentenced a teacher to 40 months in prison and 750 lashes for "mocking religion" after he discussed the Bible and praised Jews, a Saudi newspaper reported yesterday.
Al-Madina newspaper said secondary-school teacher Mohammad al-Harbi, who will be flogged in public, was taken to court by his colleagues and students.
He was charged with promoting a "dubious ideology, mocking religion, saying the Jews were right, discussing the Gospel and preventing students from leaving class to wash for prayer," the newspaper said.
Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, strictly upholds the austere Wahhabi school of Islam and bases its constitution on the Koran and the sayings of the prophet Muhammad. Public practice of any other religion is banned.
....
A 2003 report by the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom, the world's only government-sanctioned entity to investigate and report religious-freedom violations, named Saudi Arabia as the world's biggest violator of religious liberties.
The commission took the country to task for "offensive and discriminatory language" disparaging Jews, Christians and non-Wahhabi Muslims found in government-sponsored school textbooks, in Friday sermons preached in prominent mosques, and in state-controlled Saudi newspapers.
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In Saudi Arabia, the public practice of any religion other than Islam is illegal; only Muslims can be Saudi citizens; one of the Saudi king's titles is "custodian of the two holy mosques"; proselytizing for any religion other than Sunni Islam is barred; and Mecca, Islam's holy city, is forbidden to all non-Muslims.
For years, Saudi Arabia also imposed restrictions, or persuaded the U.S. government to impose restrictions, on American troops defending the country during and after then-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's 1990-91 occupation of Kuwait.
For example, U.S. postal and customs officials have barred mailing materials "contrary to the Islamic faith," including Bibles. The U.S. military also has required female service members to wear a long, black robe called an abaya when traveling off base in Saudi Arabia. Both regulations were rescinded or clarified after public outcry based on reporting in the U.S. media.
Riyadh - Saudi Arabia has detained 40 Pakistani Christians for holding prayers at a house in the Muslim kingdom, where practicising any religion other than Islam is illegal, newspapers said on Saturday.
A group of men, women and children were attending the service in the capital Riyadh when police raided the house, Al Jazirah newspaper said.
It said authorities also found Christian tapes and books.
Another Saudi daily, Al Yaum, said the raid took place on Friday while a Pakistani preacher was delivering a sermon. It was not clear what measures might be taken against the group.
Saudi authorities were not immediately available to comment.
There are around six million foreigners in the conservative kingdom, which has a population of 23 million, including many Christians from Europe, North America, Asia and other Arab states.
In a rare official rebuke of a close ally last year, Washington accused Saudi Arabia of severe violations of religious freedom.
"Freedom of religion is not recognized or protected under the country's laws and basic religious freedoms are denied to all but those who adhere to the state-sanctioned version of Sunni Islam," the State Department said in an annual report.
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, which were carried out by mainly Saudis, the Gulf Arab state's religious establishment came under sharp criticism by the West for fostering militancy and intolerance of other religions.
The website of Abiding Faith Lutheran Church of Fort Worth, Texas, has little content on it other than a list of service times, directions, and a brief statement of faith. Nevertheless, the government of Saudi Arabia has prohibited its citizens from viewing the page.
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For two weeks in May, researchers from Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society surfed the Web using Saudi Arabia's servers to simulate Internet use in the country. The purpose was to identify specific Web pages blocked by the government's Internet Services Unit (ISU). The results show that the nation filters sites about religion, politics, women, health, pop culture, and more.
"A look at the list beyond sexually explicit content yields some insight into the particular areas the Saudi government appears to find most sensitive," the report says. "The Saudi government maintains an active interest in filtering non-sexually explicit Web content for users within the kingdom."
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"That government seems to view tolerance, understanding, and cooperation as great religious evils," Bruce Robinson, coordinator and webmaster for ReligiousTolerance.org, told CT. "On the other hand, the Saudi censorship does not surprise us. Theirs is a closed society, with few religious freedoms, and restricted human rights."
Christian sites are not the only religious websites blocked by Saudi Arabia. The study found 45 Islamic sites that are also restricted. In fact, Jochen Katz, webmaster of Answering-Islam.org, says the government has also blocked the site's main Islamic opponent, Islamic-Awareness.org.
A Mosque in Rome? Sure. A non-Muslim in Mecca? No.
BY JONATHAN V. LAST
If you judge by the pictures, the Makkah Hilton is a nice place to stay. There's just one catch, as the Web site notes. The five-star hotel "is exclusively sited within the Holy City which, by national and religious law, is only accessible to visitors of the Muslim Religion."
This law is something of a singularity among major religions, because it isn't merely the Grand Mosque that is off-limits to nonbelievers, the way, for instance, a Mormon Temple is. It's a city--a major city with hotels, supermarkets, schools and a population of 1.2 million people. (The city of Medina, population 700,000, also forbids non-Muslims.)
What are the roots of this apartheid? The Koranic revelations were given to the prophet Muhammed in Mecca, which was then a pagan place. Soon after, he left Mecca and traveled to Medina, where he assembled an army, returning to conquer Mecca in A.D. 630. "The Prophet then ordered, on the basis of what he said was God's command to him, that the environs around Mecca should only be for Muslims," explains Seyyed Hossein Nasr, a professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University.
The custodians of Islam take the ban seriously, and they have constructed a large apparatus to keep infidels out. In "The Saudis," Sandra Mackey's account of living in Saudi Arabia several years ago, she recalls trying to drive near Mecca (with her husband at the wheel, of course): "Billboard-size blue and white signs in both Arabic and English appeared along the road, warning non-Moslems to turn back." She saw religious authorities and Saudi policemen "lounging in a small wooden building adjacent to the road." Eventually, "we were forced off the road by one of the angry policemen." She was fined about $100 and turned away. (What's the penalty for actually being caught inside Mecca? The Saudi embassy refused to return calls.)
Ali Al-Ahmed, executive director of the Washington-based Saudi Institute, explains that these posts "check your religion, basically." He notes that, "if you're a Saudi, of course, there is no problem. But if you aren't, your ID says what your religion is." If you're wondering why it's not a problem if you're a Saudi, Ms. Mackey explains it best by quoting a passage from a Saudi hotel directory: "Islam is the official religion of Saudi Arabia. Churches of other religious denominations do not exist in the kingdom."
Mr. Nasr has a more benign view. When traveling to Mecca, drivers are stopped at a toll station, he explains (the city has no airport): "Somebody comes forward and looks and says, 'Are you all Muslims?' And the people will say 'yes' and they'll say, 'Go on.'" But "if the authorities become suspicious because someone doesn't look like a Muslim, they'll say, 'Recite the first chapter of the Koran' or some such thing which all Muslims know by heart."
The ban sometimes creates logistical woes. Companies that rely on skilled workers often resort to using auxiliary offices outside the city. Ms. Mackey tells of the building of a hotel designed by a Western architect. The Saudis refused to allow him into the city and, she writes, "insisted that he stand on a hill outside of town and direct the work through a telescope."
Curious, daring souls have, of course, run the blockade for a long time. In the 19th century, a handful of Orientalists disguised themselves as dervishes and made their way inside, the most notable being John Lewis Burckhardt and Sir Richard Burton, who wrote of their experiences. (In 1917, T.E. Lawrence snuck in for the sole purpose, it seems, of buying a gold dagger from a particular merchant.)
Even today, there are ways around the barrier. Occasionally nonbelievers will surreptiously enter the city in the company of Muslim friends. One Muslim confides: "I have some Christian friends who have visited Mecca in the last few years--also a Jewish friend."
Officially, the U.S. is unfazed by this state-sponsored segregation. A State Department official tells me that, while "Saudi Arabia is a candidate for designation as a 'country of particular concern' under the International Religious Freedom Act,. . . the most acute problems that non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia face concern the almost virtual prohibition on engaging in their own worship. We are not aware of many demands by non-Muslims to visit Islamic holy sites."
But even at the State Department, the ban rankles. "Every religion needs to have its own freedom of assembly and be able to protect the integrity of its holy places," said one State Department expert. "But it's just absurd that it goes to these great lengths. . . . Even if you don't care about lofty ideals like religious freedom or openness, we're starting to see some real connections between religious intolerance and terrorism."
In 1995, incidentally, Saudi money funded the building of an enormous, $50 million mosque in Rome, just a stone's throw from St. Peter's Square.
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Name: Massoud
Location: Unspecified
Comment:
I wonder what would official Saudi reaction be if Israel declares all other religions illegal and expect all citizens to be Moslems. Interesting part is that all 55 Moslem countries are aware of this Saudi practice, but no one has ever said anything, as if, they really don’t have any problems with this p[policy, and we expect these people to practice Democracy?
Location: Unspecified
Comment:
Any ideas as to why the American press doesn't discuss this? Affraid?? Affraid-as in cartoons? Network news in America would rather take on our own troops in every way immaginable, than look at this saudi injustice, straight in the eye. Again, WHY? Simple, because they are cowards. I have absolutely no interest in insulting ANYONES religion or beliefs, but saudia arabia seems to have a different view, don't they.
Location: Unknown
Comment:
AsSalaam Alakium! I think this practice in Saudia Arabia is perfect. It is the one true place that Muslims can practice thier way of life and thier an Islam without fear as we fear in the United States. I can't wait to go there.
Location: Unspecified
Comments:
I'm not really concerned with how the Saudi government handles the affairs of their own country, after all they are a sovereign nation just like any and every other nation/state currently recognized by the United Nations. However, when operating a place of business that is outside the boundaries of said nation, then the laws, ordinances and customs of the host country should apply. The simple solution is that if this hotel is such a good idea, then open it up in Saudi; unfortunately that would be self-defeating. Clearly the purpose here is to cram the ideals and xenophophic mantra of islam down the throats of a overly sensative, and hyper-tolerant world. If it is successful, next stop - one in every country that will allow it. Welcome to Hitler's Germany all over again...either tolerate it, or eliminate it from the planet. YOU DECIDE!
Location: Unspecified
Comment:
Moslems have every right to practice their religion and to uphold all the tenets of it; as do practitioners of other religions. I believe that understanding of other faiths (especially if one does not adhere to them) is essential to create a world where all will benefit and all will worship (or not, if that is their lifestyle) as they please, without harboring a desire to obliterate adherents of other faiths.
In an ideal world (one in which we cannot possibly live now), everyone would be free to live and practice their faith without fear. In America now, it is not only Moslems who face persecution for their faith. On a much lesser scale (but still visible) Jews, Wiccans, and even Christians (as well as smaller religious groups) face persecution in the forms of harassment or threats; living in an area in which they might consider themselves unsafe. I do not condone this persecution, no matter who is the target.
America declares in its constution freedom of religion, and as far as one is concerned legally, that is the case; however on a practical scale, America still is not a place where one may worship without fear or retribution. But outlawing all faiths but one is not the answer. In fact, doing so may only increase such persecution. It may make adherents to the Accepted Faith feel superior, and likewise, adherents to Unaccepted Faiths either feel inferior, depressed, fearful, or otherwise unhappy.
If we are ever to move towards a better the world, the first step is understanding other faiths, even if we do not agree with their ideas or tenets. If we cannot understand our fellow man, we have no hope of living beside him.