Posted on 05/19/2003 5:43:56 PM PDT by miltonim
Commission: No Religious Freedom In Saudi Arabia
The United States needs to make religious liberty a significant part of its relationship with Saudi Arabia, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said May 13, the day after suicide bombers killed Americans and other foreigners in the Middle East country.
The commission's annual report followed the attacks on a compound for Westerners that resulted in more than 30 deaths. The radical Islamic terrorist group Al Qaeda has been credited with planning the bombings.
In its report, the commission once again called for the State Department to name Saudi Arabia as a severe violator of religious freedom. Though the department has acknowledged religious liberty does not exist in Saudi Arabia, it has refused to add the Islamic state to its list of "countries of particular concern."
"Advancing human rights and religious freedom has not yet been a public feature of the U.S.-Saudi bilateral relationship," committee chair Felice Gaer said in a written statement." Our goal in releasing this annual report on religious freedom has been to highlight that the protection of religious freedom and other human rights must be an integral part of U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia and other countries."
The commission recommended that the United States:
-- investigate the Saudi Arabian government's funding of the international promotion of a radical form of Islam that advances hate and sometimes violence.
-- push the Saudi government to improve its religious freedom status by, among other acts, eliminating the mutawaa (the religious police) and permitting places of worship not identified with Wahhabi, a narrow interpretation of Islam.
-- investigate reports that religious discrimination and restrictions against U.S. military members, diplomats and workers in Saudi Arabia are taking place.
In issuing its fourth yearly report since a 1998 law established it, the commission also released new reports on Saudi Arabia and five other countries: Afghanistan, Vietnam, Russia, Laos and Belarus.
In a post-Sept. 11, 2001, world, promoting religious rights should be a critical part of U.S. foreign policy, the commission said.
"The protection of religious freedom is and has been a valuable tool in the fight against terrorism," Gaer said at a May 13 news conference. "It is a conviction of the members of this commission that a country that respects freedom of religion -- that includes freedom for all religious minorities -- will be a more stable and responsible member of the international community."
The United States must lead in that task, commissioner Richard Land told reporters.
"I can tell you that if the government of the United States was not focusing on these issues, was not forcing other countries to address these issues ... very few people in the world would care about religious freedom and universal human rights as they relate to freedom of conscience and freedom of worship," said Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. "And the [USCIRF] is really the spear point to coordinate that...."
On Afghanistan, the commission expressed concern that an extreme understanding of Sharia Islam would be enforced by the new government. The USCIRF continued to recommend the United States name a high-ranking human rights official to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. It also urged the new Afghan government to dissolve the religious police.
The commission said the deteriorating conditions in Vietnam call for the State Department to name the communist government a "country of particular concern." The commission also said religious freedom violations should end before the United States expands relations with Vietnam. It also urged withdrawal of support for non-humanitarian loans by financial institutions until religious rights in Vietnam improve.
The commission acknowledged the vast improvement in religious liberty in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union but urged the United States to act to thwart an effort in some parts of the government to stifle such freedom, attempts possibly encouraged by the Russian Orthodox Church.
There may be areas within the country where there might be some religious freedom, but I really wouldn't expect it to ever become government policy.
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