WAR of Ideas

The political wars being waged with Saudi Arabia over terrorism and oil prices are well-known. But battles are being waged on two other key fronts, as well.

Dallas Morning News
May 8, 2005

By Preeta D. Bansal and Nina Shea

After their recent meeting in Crawford, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and President Bush issued a statement calling on those who teach and propagate the Islamic faith, as well as those of all faiths and practices, to adhere to peace, moderation and tolerance. They reiterated the principles enshrined in the February "Riyadh Declaration" calling for "fighting any form of thinking that promotes hatred, incites violence and condones terrorist crimes, which can by no means be accepted by any religion or law."

These were important words that needed to be spoken. Now, real action on the ground in Saudi Arabia must follow.

The 9-11 Commission's final report notes that Saudi Arabia funds organizations that promote an exclusivist branch of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism, which has been exploited by extremists to further their goal of violence. Earlier this year, Freedom House released a report analyzing Saudi government publications found in the U.S. These publications exhort Muslims to manifest contempt for Christians, Jews and other "infidels" and condemn Muslims who disagree with or fail to conform to the Saudi state ideology as "apostates," putting them at risk of capital punishment in the kingdom and vigilante violence elsewhere.

These Saudi state publications also denounce democracy and elected legislatures on the basis that they are ruled by the people, not Allah, whose unmediated will the Saudi government claims to enforce. The Saudi state works to disseminate this ideology throughout the world, while invalidating more moderate traditions and expressions of Islam.

In Saudi Arabia, the consequence of denying religious freedom is widespread and brutal political repression. Within the kingdom, dissenting moderates and political reformers are crushed by the government on religious grounds. Muslims and non-Muslims alike are denied freedom of conscience and belief in Saudi Arabia. This, together with the Saudi government's global propagation of Wahhabism, impedes the development of voices of toleration and debate and foments extremism.

The 9-11 Commission's final report concluded that the war on terror requires U.S. engagement in the struggle for ideas in the Muslim world, and Saudi Arabia's exportation of Wahhabi extremism is working against us. Promoting religious freedom in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere is critical for encouraging reform, freedom, democracy and dissent within Muslim-majority countries.

In September, the U.S. for the first time named Saudi Arabia a "country of particular concern" (CPC) for severe religious freedom violations. The president is required by congressional statute to act on this designation within 180 days by imposing measures that can include the suspension of economic assistance. To date, no such action has been taken. On March 15, the State Department asked Congress for an extension, asserting that there had been "real engagement" with Saudi Arabia, though no specifics were offered.

The bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has recommended CPC status for Saudi Arabia since the commission's formation in 1999. The commission has monitored Saudi Arabia's religious freedom record for several years and has seen no evidence of real progress.

To the contrary, this February - the same month it issued the "Riyadh Declaration" - the Saudi government named the former head of the World Muslim League - a government-supported charity that is the world's largest publisher of Islamic extremist literature, and which is now enmeshed in a U.S. terrorism investigation - as the new minister of education, the key cabinet post for reform. And last month's announcement of a national campaign against extremism designed to educate Saudis about the importance of tolerance and moderation was followed by the destruction of a Hindu temple by the state religious police.

The 9-11 Commission concluded that the problems in the U.S.-Saudi relationship must be confronted openly. The International Religious Freedom Act, which establishes the CPC designation process, provides important tools by which such problems may begin to be addressed openly. In accordance with its mandate under the act, the commission recommends specific actions for the U.S. government in this regard. They include:

• Denying entry into the U.S. of any Saudi government official who was responsible for or directly carried out particularly severe religious freedom violations;

• Barring U.S. entry for Saudi government officials who have been responsible for propagating globally an ideology that explicitly promotes hate, intolerance and human rights violations; and

• Ceasing the export of items such as thumbcuffs, leg irons and shackles, which the U.S. now exports to Saudi Arabia and could be used to perpetrate human rights violations, such as torture.

A high-level joint U.S.-Saudi committee has just been established to deal with issues of strategic importance to the two countries. Ending the global propagation of Saudi-financed terrorism should be among those issues. This would signal a major policy shift to Riyadh that the United States values religious freedom, seeks to undermine the roots of terror and extremism, and is serious about the president's State of the Union challenge to Saudi Arabia to expand the political freedom of its people.

Preeta D. Bansal (left) , an attorney in New York City, is chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and the former solicitor general of New York. Nina Shea, director of Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C., is vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 6, 2005

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

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) will announce its 2005 recommendations to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for "countries of particular concern," or CPCs, at an on-the-record press conference at the National Press Club on May 11, 2005. The Commission's 2005 recommendations will include both additions to and removals from the list of recommended CPC countries, as well as the Commission's Watch List. The Commission will also release its2005 Annual Reportwith policy recommendations for the President, Secretary of State, and Congress. The press conference will be held from 9:30-11:00 a.m. in the First Amendment Room on the 13th floor of the National Press Club ( 529 14 th Street, NW, Washington, DC). It is open to all members of the media and the public.

The Commission is statutorily charged with making recommendations to the Secretary of State on countries whose governments have engaged in or tolerated systematic and egregious violations of the universal right to freedom of religion or belief. Under the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, those countries may be designated by the Secretary of State as "countries of particular concern," or CPCs. Last September, in addition to redesignating five countries ( Burma, China, Iran, North Korea, and Sudan), the State Department acted on the Commission's recommendations and designated for the first time Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and Eritrea. The Commission sent Secretary Rice a letter with recommendations for policy actions on those first-time designees. The State Department is required by law to take action on designated countries within 180 days.

"In announcing its 2005 CPC recommendations to Secretary Rice, the Commission notes that the State Department has yet to announce Congressionally-mandated policy actions for its 2004 CPC designations of Saudi Arabia and Eritrea," said USCIRF Chair Preeta D. Bansal. "Yesterday, the State Department announced it had entered into an agreement with Vietnam. The agreement, however, makes clear there is ‘outstanding work' to be done. The2005 Annual Report we are releasing today includes the Commission's recommendations for Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Eritrea, as well as China, Egypt, India, Iraq, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan , among others."

Copies of the Commission's 2005 CPC recommendations to Secretary of State Rice and its2005 Annual Report will be available at the press conference and will also be posted on the Commission's Web site at www.uscirf.gov. They can also be obtained by contacting the Commission's Communications department at (202) 523-3240. Interviews with Commissioners may be arranged by contacting Anne Johnson, Communications Director, at (202) 523-3240, ext. 27.

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.