Religious Freedom
The issue
The Saudi government does not allow the free practice of any religion other than the state-sanctioned interpretation of Islam (Wahhabism). Worship for Muslims in Saudi Arabia is compulsory and during times of worship, all shops, restaurants, radio and television stations must close. Those who do not comply are subject to punishment, such as detention or flogging. Non- Muslims, if caught practicing their faiths in public, are routinely detained by the “Religious Police” and placed in prisons under harsh conditions without charge or due process. If religious prisoners come before a court, they face a biased judicial system staffed by Wahhabi extremist judges, who consider religious minorities and non-Muslims to be infidels. If they are foreigners, they are often deported to their native countries. Read More…
From CDHRThe Fortress of Extremism Imam Mohammed Ibn Saud University in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, is an extremist institution that rejects modernity and equality for women, frowns on other brands and sects of Islam (other than the austere Hambaly-Wahhabi brand) and promotes hatred and violence. Most, if not all, of Saudi suicide bombers, including the ones that inflict death and destruction in and outside of Saudi Arabia, graduate from this revered university. Read More… Moving Toward a Segregated Society The highest religious authority in Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, the Saudi Mufti, is one of the strongest opponents of women’s rights, equality and integration into the male dominated Saudi society. Like his ally and protector, the Saudi royal family, with the exception of Prince Talal, the powerful Mufti is dedicated to keeping the Saudi society divided, powerless, fearful and oppressed for as long as he can get away with it. Like all feudal men, the Mufti uses religion to control and crush people’s hopes and aspirations of self-reliance and the desire to explore their potential in creating an educated, tolerant, united and forward looking society. Read More… Prince Naif is Watching The Saudi government’s religious police, dubbed sarcastically by the public, “The Commission for the Prevention of Virtue and Promotion of Vice,” is an agency notorious for spying and intimidation. The population is constantly terrorized by this large contingency of the government’s many layers of security. They can do whatever they want, including beating people to death in front of their loved ones and getting away with it. This is direct evidence that they are part of a government-controlled agency and not, as the government is quick to state, religious fanatics that could create problems for the royal family if it embarks on any tangible democratic reforms and empowerment of women. Read More… Extremists Back in the Streets When the Saudi authorities capture potential suicide bombers, they place them in lush residential villas and re-indoctrinate them to focus their attention on the enemies of Islam. Contrary to the Saudi educational officials and senior members of the royal family, who control what is being taught in schools, mosques, and on the street, these young men learn their violent religious values in Saudi institutions. Read More… Defeat the Wahhabi Ideology At the heart of Muslim religious extremism and intolerance is the Saudi literally interpreted and piercingly implemented version of the Quran, Shariah, Islamic arbitrary law, and Hadith, the Prophet’s conversation or tradition. The Saudi-Wahhabi population represents less than one percent of Muslims worldwide, which is a miniscule percentage. This number would be religiously irrelevant if it were not for the fact that Islam was founded in the Western Hijaz region, which was annexed by the Saudi-Wahhabi death Squads (the Ikhwan, or Brothers) in 1926. Read More… Is it Islam That Non-Muslims Resent? Praising Queen Rania of Jordan’s noble stand on dispelling the myths about the Hijab, or women’s face covering, in an interview on Oprah, author Ezrinal Azis quoted her majesty the Queen of Jordan as having said, “The Hijab is a choice — a woman wears the Hijab because she believes in it and she has the right to wear it, not because she is forced to.” This may be true in Jordan, but in Saudi Arabia it is far from the truth. Read More… East-West Religious Conflict The rise of religious fervor in Muslim communities in most parts of the world is seen by many non-sectarian Muslims and non-Muslims as a threat to democratic values, world peace, rights for women and minorities, and economic stability. This dangerous trend is attributed to excessive use of religion as a political and oppressive tool by many autocratic Arab and Muslim regimes, especially in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam and home to two of its most holy shrines. Read More… Victories for Muslims Saudi clerics gave fiery sermons to celebrate the end of fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. They urged Muslims to be optimistic because victories are coming just like in the past, referring to Muslim invasions of many parts of the world between the seventh and eleventh centuries. This is what the deadly ideologues are promising their followers and captive audiences. Read More… Saudi Mufti Misses the Target The Saudi Mufti, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, the highest religious authority in the country, is right when he describes Muslim youths as “a commodity, bought and sold by (Middle) Eastern and Western agencies…they have become instruments for carrying out heinous acts.” This statement makes specific reference to reports of Saudis taking part as suicide bombers in Iraq. Read More… Islam is the Only Virtuous Religion In an August 31, 2007 interview Saleh bin Fouzan Al-Fouzan, one of Saudi Arabia’s senior and highly respected fatwa (religious edict) clerics, decreed that those who are calling for co-existence between faiths are asking to harmonize true faith, Islam, and non-true faiths, namely all other religions. He argued that the only true religion is the religion of the messenger, Prophet Mohammed. Sadly and dangerously, Al-Fouzan represents the views and beliefs of Saudi clerics toward non-Muslim faiths. Read More… Salafism’s Simple Message Appeals to Muslim Youth The article below reads, “Salafism, which is based on puritanical Wahhabism from Saudi Arabia, is the sect of Islam that Osama bin Laden and its Dutch-Moroccan affiliates of the Hofstad Group adhere to.” Salafi ideologues are among the most rigid and dangerous of Muslim zealots. They believe in purifying Islam and going back to the days of its beginnings more than fourteen and a half centuries ago. Read More… Pray for Muslim Victory The Muslim fasting month, Ramadan, is supposed to be a time to forgive and ask for mercy and forgiveness. This is not the case during all night prayers in crowded Saudi mosques during this month. The preachers spend their lengthy sermons exalting Islam and condemning non-Muslims and their faiths. Read More… Religious Police, No Need for Proof The Saudi Judicial system indirectly endorses the government’s paid voracious religious police to arrest, interrogate and in some cases kill innocent Saudi citizens and escape any responsibility for their crimes. Several members of the religious police were recently questioned in a religious court regarding their purported improprieties. However, they were neither questioned about their actions, nor were any witnesses called, and they were ultimately set free, to the horror of relatives of the victims they were accused of killing. Read More… More Religious Police Violent Actions The Saudi religious police stormed a home in search of a man who allegedly was selling alcohol. The man was viciously attacked in front of his family by agents of the government’s “Commission for the Promoter of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” agency. He died upon his arrival at the hospital because of excessive bleeding caused by the severe beatings by the religious police. Read More… Arrest and Death A family driver, “50-year-old Ahmed ibn Mussalam Al-Bulawi”, was spotted driving a woman by the Saudi religious police in early June; consequently, the man was arrested and taken to one of the religious police interrogation centers where he died. According to Saudi laws, women are prohibited from driving or riding with non-relative males even if she is being driven to an emergency room. In this case, the driver happened to be employed by the family to drive women, since they are denied the right to drive. Like other deadly incidents in this special mailing, an investigation is being ordered and like previous occasions, it’s more likely than not that the result would remain unknown or a statement by the government would be issued to say the proper actions against the perpetrators have been taken. Read More… Balancing Act: The Saudi Conundrum Never in its recent history has the Saudi ruling dynasty been on shakier ground. Domestically, the threats of terrorist attacks are not declining, as Saudi senior princes would have the world believe. Saudis from every segment of society are demanding reform of the corrupt, inefficient, and undemocratic Saudi government institutions. Regionally, the Saudi dynasty is surrounded by violent conflicts in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine that could easily spill over the kingdom’s borders and plunge the country into sectarian strife. Read More… |
In the NewsWhy so few Iraqis flee to Saudi border “That few, if any, refugees have gone to Saudi Arabia reflects the growing religious divide in the Middle East and the often problematic role the Saudis play in the war on terror.”
Saudi Arabia casts wary eye on its Shiites “With a Sunni-Shiite cold war descending on the region, Saudi Arabia appears to be hardening its sectarian battle lines.”
In Riyadh, ‘Saudi Jeans’ and calls to prayer “The symbols of Islamic fundamentalism and American modernity bump up against each other frequently in Riyadh, occasionally causing sparks as the kingdom slowly succumbs to pressure to reform from inside and out.”
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From other Organizations
Bahá’í International Community
CDHR supports the work of and collaborates with groups that defend human rights and religious freedom. Accordingly, CDHR endorses the Baha’i statement on the Upholding the Standard of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. You may read it here.