State Department adds Saudi Arabia to CPC list
- Sep 1, 2004 - comment
The State Department has finally designated Saudi Arabia as one of the most severe violators of religious freedom in the world.
In its Sept. 15 report on global religious liberty, the State Department added Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Eritrea to its list of “countries of particular concern.” They joined the following holdovers from last year’s CPC list: Burma, China, Iran, North Korea and Sudan. Iraq was dropped from the list in the wake of the United States-led coalition’s toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom had recommended Saudi Arabia’s inclusion on the CPC list since the commission was formed in 1999. The State Department had acknowledged religious liberty did not exist in the Middle East country in previous years without designating it as a CPC.
The USCIRF’s recommendation of Saudi Arabia, as well as the State Department’s designation of the country, as a CPC was based on the dominance of a state-approved version of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabi. The Saudi government is hostile to non-Muslims and Muslims outside the Wahhabi tradition. It prohibits conversion to a different faith, public religious activities by non-Muslims, and proselytizing and distribution efforts by non-Muslims.
The USCIRF also had targeted Saudi Arabia because of evidence it had collected that the government was funding the spread of Wahhabism to schools in other countries.
Violations in the other new CPCs were described in the annual report:
- Vietnam: The conditions for ethnic minority Protestants and some independent Buddhists deteriorated. Hundreds of churches and other places of worship in the country’s central highlands were closed, and many Protestants were pressured or tortured to renounce their faith. At least 45 religious adherents, including Protestants, Catholics and Buddhists, are in prison.
- Eritrea: The government shut down all religious activities except those of four approved groups: The Evangelical Lutheran Church; Orthodox Christians; Catholics, and Muslims. It is estimated more than 200 people are imprisoned because of their religious faith. Some reportedly have undergone severe torture.
ERLC President Richard Land completed his service Sept. 20 as a member of the USCIRF. President Bush appointed him to a two-year term with the panel in 2001 and reappointed him to a one-year term in 2003.
The State Department’s full report may be accessed online at www.state.gov .
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