Ignoring the Plight of Americans in Saudi Arabia
Harold's List
The Institute for Gulf Affairs
1900 L Street, NW Suite 309
Washington DC, 20036
T: 202-466-9500
By Ali Al-Ahmed & Logan Barclift
After weeks of delay, the US State Department has released its annual report on international religious freedom. Yet this report ignored the plight of the American communities abroad, especially in countries that repress freedom of religion such as Saudi Arabia.
The State Department and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom's exclusion of American communities aboard from their annual reports on religious freedom around the world must end.
U.S. government has not taken public any steps to assure the religious and cultural rights of Americans in Saudi Arabia. International human rights organization reports also avoid addressing the religious and cultural freedoms of Americans in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi government continues to ban American and other Christian expatriates from celebrating their religious and cultural holidays, such as Christmas and New Year's, Independence Day, Thanksgivings and others.
Americans under Wahhabi Laws
There are more than 30,000 Americans, mostly Christians, work in Saudi Arabia as doctors, engineers, and in other professions important to the country such as communications and industrial technology. But they are forbidden from celebrating any of their religious or national holidays in public. They must do it in secret, as though they were committing a crime. Western employees of Saudi Aramco, the biggest oil company in the world, are forced to celebrate Christmas in Bahrain, to avoid the Saudi ban.
The Saudi government also bans Christian and Jewish Americans from any public _expression of their faith or American culture. The Saudi ban is not limited to religious holidays, but extends to social and national holidays. This bans also extends to millions of Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu guest workers from other nations.
Currently, Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world without an open church despite the presence of millions of Christians in the country. It is also the only country in the world to ban its residents from celebrating the Western New Year and Valentine's Day. By comparison, Iran and North Korea both have Churches.
Saudi Ban on Christmas
The State Department seems to blame the Mutawwa'in or religious police for the problem, but the problem comes from the Saudi government. According the Saudi Department of Customs' website, the Riyadh government forbids the importation of Christmas trees, cards, and crosses. In October of 2004, a toy store owner in Khober was detained on the charge of promoting witchcraft because he carried Halloween decorations such as masks and witches' hats. Christmas cards are secretly sold under the counter in very few stores. The Saudi authorities also ban cards or other materials associated with Valentine's Day.
By contrast, Saudi residents in the U.S. enjoy complete freedom of religion and are able to celebrate all of their religious and national holidays openly. The countries of Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, all neighbors of Saudi Arabia, have open churches, synagogues, Hindu, and Sikh temples.
Reciprocity
The U.S. administration should apply the internationally recognized legal principle of reciprocity to the Saudi government and its organizations. The Saudi government could be compelled to allow similar projects on its territories as those the U.S. has allowed the Saudis to conduct on American soil for the past four decades.
The Saudi government and its organizations have built thousands of Wahhabi mosques and centers around the world. A long list of Islamic centers, organizations and entities were wholly or partially built or supported by the Saudi government in America such as the World Muslim League and World Assembly of Muslim Youth that promulgate an extreme understanding of Islam. These organizations have had offices in Washington D.C. since the 1980s. However, there are no American or Western organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, and National Democratic Institute among others, in Saudi Arabia whose purpose is to monitor human rights and civil society.
George Washington in Riyadh
It is high time that these American civil society organizations be allowed to operate offices in Saudi Arabia as part of the principle of reciprocity. The Saudis should be obliged to allow the American government and organizations to build an equal numbers of similar organizations on Saudi soil. By doing so, America will establish its intellectual, civil, and democratic "bases" in Saudi Arabia. People in Middle East must interact with American civil society, and gain their experience in order to build progressive societies.
Hundreds of official Saudi religious leaders have traveled to the United States over the past two decades to engage in prostelizing. It is time that Saudi Arabia allows American multi-faith religious leaders to travel to the Kingdom. The American government should work to expose Saudis to other religious views to reduce the massive religious xenophobia imposed upon them by a medieval religious institution. The sight of a Jewish Rabbi or a Catholic Bishop sitting with the Saudi Wahhabi Mufti in Riyadh will go much further to fighting extremism than most programs now implemented by the State Department.
The rights of American citizens living in Saudi Arabia must be protected by parallels to Saudi political, financial, and religious access in the U.S. Saudis residing in America enjoy their religious, political and cultural freedoms but their American counterparts living in Saudi Arabia are suffering the consequences of their government's silence. If the administration is silent, Congress should not.
Congress should investigate the repression of Americans living in Saudi Arabia. A fact finding mission by members would be helpful so they could see for themselves the level to which Americans can openly observe their religious and cultural practices. A section of American human rights and religious freedom reports must be allocated to the status of American taxpayers abroad.
1900 L Street, NW Suite 309
Washington DC, 20036
T: 202-466-9500
By Ali Al-Ahmed & Logan Barclift
After weeks of delay, the US State Department has released its annual report on international religious freedom. Yet this report ignored the plight of the American communities abroad, especially in countries that repress freedom of religion such as Saudi Arabia.
The State Department and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom's exclusion of American communities aboard from their annual reports on religious freedom around the world must end.
U.S. government has not taken public any steps to assure the religious and cultural rights of Americans in Saudi Arabia. International human rights organization reports also avoid addressing the religious and cultural freedoms of Americans in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi government continues to ban American and other Christian expatriates from celebrating their religious and cultural holidays, such as Christmas and New Year's, Independence Day, Thanksgivings and others.
Americans under Wahhabi Laws
There are more than 30,000 Americans, mostly Christians, work in Saudi Arabia as doctors, engineers, and in other professions important to the country such as communications and industrial technology. But they are forbidden from celebrating any of their religious or national holidays in public. They must do it in secret, as though they were committing a crime. Western employees of Saudi Aramco, the biggest oil company in the world, are forced to celebrate Christmas in Bahrain, to avoid the Saudi ban.
The Saudi government also bans Christian and Jewish Americans from any public _expression of their faith or American culture. The Saudi ban is not limited to religious holidays, but extends to social and national holidays. This bans also extends to millions of Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu guest workers from other nations.
Currently, Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world without an open church despite the presence of millions of Christians in the country. It is also the only country in the world to ban its residents from celebrating the Western New Year and Valentine's Day. By comparison, Iran and North Korea both have Churches.
Saudi Ban on Christmas
The State Department seems to blame the Mutawwa'in or religious police for the problem, but the problem comes from the Saudi government. According the Saudi Department of Customs' website, the Riyadh government forbids the importation of Christmas trees, cards, and crosses. In October of 2004, a toy store owner in Khober was detained on the charge of promoting witchcraft because he carried Halloween decorations such as masks and witches' hats. Christmas cards are secretly sold under the counter in very few stores. The Saudi authorities also ban cards or other materials associated with Valentine's Day.
By contrast, Saudi residents in the U.S. enjoy complete freedom of religion and are able to celebrate all of their religious and national holidays openly. The countries of Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, all neighbors of Saudi Arabia, have open churches, synagogues, Hindu, and Sikh temples.
Reciprocity
The U.S. administration should apply the internationally recognized legal principle of reciprocity to the Saudi government and its organizations. The Saudi government could be compelled to allow similar projects on its territories as those the U.S. has allowed the Saudis to conduct on American soil for the past four decades.
The Saudi government and its organizations have built thousands of Wahhabi mosques and centers around the world. A long list of Islamic centers, organizations and entities were wholly or partially built or supported by the Saudi government in America such as the World Muslim League and World Assembly of Muslim Youth that promulgate an extreme understanding of Islam. These organizations have had offices in Washington D.C. since the 1980s. However, there are no American or Western organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, and National Democratic Institute among others, in Saudi Arabia whose purpose is to monitor human rights and civil society.
George Washington in Riyadh
It is high time that these American civil society organizations be allowed to operate offices in Saudi Arabia as part of the principle of reciprocity. The Saudis should be obliged to allow the American government and organizations to build an equal numbers of similar organizations on Saudi soil. By doing so, America will establish its intellectual, civil, and democratic "bases" in Saudi Arabia. People in Middle East must interact with American civil society, and gain their experience in order to build progressive societies.
Hundreds of official Saudi religious leaders have traveled to the United States over the past two decades to engage in prostelizing. It is time that Saudi Arabia allows American multi-faith religious leaders to travel to the Kingdom. The American government should work to expose Saudis to other religious views to reduce the massive religious xenophobia imposed upon them by a medieval religious institution. The sight of a Jewish Rabbi or a Catholic Bishop sitting with the Saudi Wahhabi Mufti in Riyadh will go much further to fighting extremism than most programs now implemented by the State Department.
The rights of American citizens living in Saudi Arabia must be protected by parallels to Saudi political, financial, and religious access in the U.S. Saudis residing in America enjoy their religious, political and cultural freedoms but their American counterparts living in Saudi Arabia are suffering the consequences of their government's silence. If the administration is silent, Congress should not.
Congress should investigate the repression of Americans living in Saudi Arabia. A fact finding mission by members would be helpful so they could see for themselves the level to which Americans can openly observe their religious and cultural practices. A section of American human rights and religious freedom reports must be allocated to the status of American taxpayers abroad.
posted by Marko at 11/20/2005 11:56:00 AM
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