FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 17, 2003

Contact:
Anne Johnson, Director of Communications, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

November 18 USCIRF hearing on Capitol Hill

WASHINGTON - Last week the Saudi government said that it does not fund radical madrassas. Numerous credible reports suggest otherwise. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has reportedly raised the issue of whether the United States should combat the madrassas as part of its efforts to combat terrorism. His deputy, Under Secretary Paul Wolfowitz has described madrassas as "schools that teach hatred, schools that teach terrorism." The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has recommended that Congress authorize and fund a public study to determine whether the Saudi government is directly or indirectly funding efforts to propagate globally, including in the United States, an ideology that promotes hate, intolerance, and other human rights violations, and in some cases violence, toward members of other religious groups, both Muslim and non-Muslim. What we seek are facts - whether they vindicate or implicate Saudi Arabia. This hearing will be a step in that process.

WHAT:"Is Saudi Arabia a Strategic Threat: the Global Propagation of Intolerance"

WHEN:Tuesday, November 18, 2003, 9:30a.m. - 11:30a.m.

WHERE:253 Russell Senate Office Building

The Commission will hear testimony from the following confirmed participants:

The Honorable David Aufhauser , former General Counsel, U.S. Department of the Treasury and Chair of National Security Council Policy Coordinating Committee on Terrorist Financing.

Robert Baer , former CIA operative and author of Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude.

Ambassador Martin Indyk , Director, Saban Center for Middle East Policy, The Brookings Institution, and former Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.

Dr. Mai Yamani , Research Fellow, Middle East Program, Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, London.

View the Hearing Transcript

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress.

Wall Street Journal
November 10, 2003

By Khaled Abou El Fadl

The religious extremists who form al Qaeda and similar terrorist groups are a threat not only to the U.S., but also other parts of the world -- including Saudi Arabia. Since Sept. 11, there have been numerous reports that funding coming from Saudi Arabia has been used to finance religious schools and other activities that are alleged to support the kind of intolerance practiced by Islamic militants world-wide. The Saudis have denied these allegations, and the U.S. has praised the Saudi government for its cooperation in the war on terror. Yet a recent Time magazine cover story rightly questioned whether the Saudi brand of Islam is compatible with that war. Saturday's attacks in Riyadh only make that question more urgent, and piquant.

The Saudis fund mosques, university chairs, Islamic study centers, and religious schools known as madrassas, all over the world, from New York to Nigeria. During the Afghan war against the Soviets, madrassas emerged in Pakistan that were concerned less with scholarship than with war on infidels. They provided ideological training for those who went to fight in Kashmir, Chechnya, and Afghanistan -- and many still do. The peaceful propagation of religious beliefs, including Islam, is a human right. But the concern is that the Saudi government may be propagating an Islam that promotes violence against non-Muslims and disfavored Muslims. The line separating the brand of Islam allegedly preached by the Saudis from the violence of radicals is a fine one. Just how one moves across this line warrants investigation.

After Sept. 11, Saudi leaders admitted that up to 10% of their curriculum contained objectionable material, including hatred of other religious groups, and vowed to address the issue. Yet there has been no examination of the extent to which these materials are found in Saudi-funded religious schools and mosques outside the Kingdom -- including Islamic religious literature available in U.S. prisons and the U.S. armed forces.

In an effort to provide answers, the Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan, independent federal agency, has recommended that Congress fund a study to determine whether and how -- and the extent to which -- the Saudi government, members of the royal family, or Saudi-funded individuals or institutions, are propagating globally, including in America, a religious ideology that explicitly promotes hate and violence toward members of other religious groups. What we seek are facts -- whether they vindicate or implicate Saudi Arabia. In undertaking such a study, the U.S. should first request that the Saudis provide an account of the religious institutions they fund in America. The study should then commission experts to survey literature found in Saudi-funded religious schools; speak to Muslims who frequent Saudi-funded mosques; analyze Saudi-funded pamphlets, newsletters, radio, and TV; interview officials in countries where intolerant materials have been identified; and call on Saudi officials to account for the religious materials it exports. Findings should be reported to Congress.

The Saudi foreign minister has acknowledged that it is possible individual Saudis have funded Wahhabi schools abroad, and has said that he would welcome information about this funding, now considered a crime in Saudi Arabia. The study we have proposed would not only help fulfill his request, but would also reveal whether or not his government is involved. In the age of global terrorism, the U.S. should be concerned when there are credible allegations that Saudi Arabia is propagating globally a brand of Islam that is not only incompatible with the war against terrorism, but may well be promoting it.

Mr. El Fadl, a law professor at Yale, is on the Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Copyright 2003 Wall Street Journal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 10, 2003

Contact:
Anne Johnson, Director of Communications, (202) 523-3240 (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

U.S. Refugee Admissions Program: Improve Access for Those Fleeing Religious Repression

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), has written Undersecretary of State Paul Dobriansky calling on the State Department to improve access to the U.S. Refugee Program for individuals fleeing religious freedom violations. Citing the plight of religious groups fleeing repression in Burma, China, Iran, North Korea, and Sudan, the Commission recommended that "systematic consideration of groups benefiting from improved access to the refugee program should, at the very least, be triggered when the Secretary, pursuant to Section 402 of IRFA, designates ‘countries of particular concern' (‘CPCs') to the United States on the basis of ‘systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.'"

"The United States Refugee Admissions Program helps more than just those individuals whom it resettles. Resettlement also serves a strategic purpose by drawing domestic and international attention to the human rights abuses that force refugees to flee, including severe violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief," wrote USCIRF Chair Michael K. Young.

The text of the letter follows:

Dear Undersecretary Dobriansky:

On behalf of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, I am pleased to inform you that the Commission has adopted policy recommendations relevant to the recent Report to Congress on Proposed Refugee Admissions for FY2004. I hope these will inform State Department efforts to "identify populations and priorities that make achieving the FY2004 refugee admissions ceiling (of 70,000) possible."

With Thanksgiving approaching, we are reminded that the earliest European settlers to North America risked their lives to sail across the ocean in search of religious freedom. The inextricable link between religious freedom violations and refugee flows continues to this day, and is acknowledged throughout Title VI of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA).

The United States Refugee Admissions Program helps more than just those individuals whom it resettles. Resettlement also serves a strategic purpose by drawing domestic and international attention to the human rights abuses that force refugees to flee, including severe violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief.

With this in mind, the Commission encourages the Department of State to more systematically facilitate access to the Refugee Program for individuals fleeing religious freedom violations. We would propose this be done by taking into account information contained in reports of this Commission, as well as those of the Department of State's own Office of International Religious Freedom. Systematic consideration of groups benefiting from improved access to the refugee program should, at the very least, be triggered when the Secretary, pursuant to Section 402 of IRFA, designates "countries of particular concern" ("CPCs") to the United States on the basis of "systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom."

In countries designated as CPCs, the link between severe violations of religious freedom and refugee flows is clear. Last year, the Secretary designated six "Countries of Particular Concern." To name just a few examples demonstrating the link between CPC designations and vulnerable refugee groups in need of a durable solution: North Koreans in China, Chinese Uighur Muslims in Central Asia and Nepal, Tibetan Buddhists in Nepal and India, Chinese Christians and Falun Gong scattered throughout the world, Southern Sudanese in Egypt and Kenya, Iranian religious minorities in Europe, Turkey and Pakistan, Burmese Chin in India, and Iraqi Chaldeans and Mandaeans throughout the Middle East. The Taliban regime in Afghanistan was also designated to be of "particular concern" to the United States for severe violations of religious freedom, creating many refugees with religious persecution claims, even though they were of the same faith as the Taliban.

The FY04 Admissions Document, however, indicates that only nationals fleeing religious persecution from one CPC - Iran - may apply for refugee status (under "Priority Two") without a referral from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Nationals of Burma and Sudan are also permitted to apply under the "Priority Three" designation, but only if they have a spouse, child or (in limited circumstances) parent in the United States.

The Commission recognizes the delicate and complex issues raised by expanding access to the refugee program, and is not proposing that nationals from "Countries of Particular Concern" be granted the automatic right to apply for refugee status. Rather, the Commission recommends that the Department use its expertise to carefully consider each CPC designation and deliberate how the U.S. Refugee Program could strategically re-enforce U.S. policy to promote religious freedom, and to protect those who seek to exercise this fundamental human right.

The Annual Report on Proposed Refugee Admissions, pursuant to section 601(d) of IRFA, already contains "information about the religious persecution of refugees eligible for consideration for admission..." It would be useful, however, if the document also included a review of each CPC designation, including an explanation of how the U.S. Refugee Program has considered processing priorities for those who have fled Countries of Particular Concern.

Finally, the Commission would like to reiterate the concern, originally expressed in its May 2002 Annual Report, that the Refugee Program has yet to develop the guidelines mandated by sections 602(c)(1) and (2) of IRFA to eliminate hostile biases in refugee program personnel and ensure proper refugee case file preparation. The Commission would be pleased to lend its own expertise in support of the efforts of the Refugee Program to comply with these statutory provisions.

The Commission would welcome the opportunity to work with the U.S. Refugee Program to identify populations and processing priorities and achieve its stated goals for FY2004.

Sincerely,

Michael K. Young

Chair

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress.