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Religious Freedom: A Saudi Taboo

Manuela Paraipan - 12/8/2005

The U.S. State Department, in a report released in November 2005, cites Saudi Arabia as restricting religious freedom. The situation did not improve much since last year, when the State Department reported that religious freedom was lacking in the Kingdom. The report stated, "Islam is the official religion and all citizens must be Muslims." Moreover, the state is imposing the Sunni version of Islam on all citizens, be they Shi'a Muslims or non-Muslims. However, the State Secretary Rice at the time refused to sanction Saudi Arabia, saying she wanted "to allow additional time for the continuation of discussions leading to progress on important religious freedom issues."

Despite the Kingdom's actions to thwart terrorism, in terms of religious freedoms and human rights the reality is still gloomy.

King Abdullah addressed women in his country saying that, "patience is beautiful", in response to the issue of women driving cars in the Kingdom, but there are other challenges as important as this one he has to deal with, in the near future such as:

· The internal conflicts within the royal family
· The threat of terrorism
· The rise in demography
· Creating new jobs
· Religious freedom, speech freedom
· Human rights reforms, especially for youths and women
· Political challenges - will the Kingdom be able to allow political pluralism, minimize the Islamism threat and still survive?

Dr. Mai Yamani wrote recently for The Independent that "Saudi Arabia has remained trapped in a state of suspended animation, its body politic sick and infirm. Now it is caught between two choices: progressive reform or continuing paralysis and decay."

Mr. Micha van Waesberghe, Vice President of the Center for Democracy & Human Rights in Saudi Arabia recently wrote about the case of Samuel Daniel, a Christian of Indian nationality who lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for more than 20 years. But, being a Christian proves to be a ticking bomb in the Kingdom, regardless of how exemplary one's life is.

The Saudi religious police, without any official mandate or explanation of whatsoever, arrested and detained Samuel Daniel for a period of ten days. Presumably, since there was nothing wrong or inadequate in his behavior other than his affiliation to the Christian faith, that was the reason why he was jailed and later on forcible deported out of the country.

Samuel Daniel has taken this matter to the Indian Ambassador, which asked further explanations from the Saudi officials. Their response was that this gentleman was never arrested or detained, because there were no charges made against him and that was the end of the story for the Saudis.

The practice of entering one's private home, and imprison that person because of his religious affiliation should not only be considered as an act of moral injustice, but also of barbarism.

The only positive aspect of the story, if any aspect of it can be named so, is the insight Samuel Daniel had into the manner the Saudis treat the Christians, actually their mistreatment of all non-Muslims. Because of his courage to alert and give his testimony to the Indian authorities and the human rights NGO's, maybe others will not suffer the despair and injustice he had to suffer.

The conditions of imprisonment are hard to imagine; one hundred or even two hundred people, kept in a room of 20 on 25 feet, without proper food, water or medication. To add to their stress those people were being threatened, and verbally and physically abused. The whole image is disturbing, with people jailed for months without knowing what they are accused of, without having a lawyer or any official representatives visiting them.

It is a pity that Saudi Arabia, a country that hosts Islam's two holiest cities of Mecca and Medina has proven to be a place where words, such as tolerance, humanity and respect for other's religious faith are not known.

In the end, if the Saudi Royal family is looking to play a key role in stabilizing the region, it should first deal with its domestic issues.