Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a charming way of describing the
South American dictators his administration propped up in the 1930s
and '40s. “He may be a son of a bitch,” said Roosevelt of
Nicaragua’s Anastasio Somoza, “but he’s our son of a bitch.”
Roosevelt’s administration ended some 60 years ago, but the U.S. is
still propping up SOBs.
Last week America’s great Middle Eastern ally Saudi Arabia was
singled out as the country with the world’s worst record on
religious freedom, according to a U.S. State Department report. No
surprise there. The kingdom was the top offender in 2003 too.
“Freedom of religion does not exist” in Saudi Arabia, the report
says flatly. “Islam is the official religion and all citizens must
be Muslims.”
I haven’t the time or space to document each and every Saudi
religious atrocity, but here are a few of the most egregious. (Many
more can be found in the State Department’s report here and at Human Rights Watch’s
website.):
* There are between 500,000 and one million Catholics in Saudi
Arabia. (That the State Department cannot even come close to an
accurate count reflects the fear under which religious minorities
live.) Non-Sunni Muslims practice their religion in fear of the
dread religious police kicking down their doors and catching them
in the criminal act of prayer. John Hanford, who heads the State
Department’s religious freedom office, told reporters, “We are
pleased that hundreds of thousands of people are permitted to
practice their religion privately.” What Hanford meant to say is
“secretly.” But sometimes the secret gets out. In September 2004,
seven Filipino Christians were picked up in a religious police
raid. Their crime: holding church services. The Filipinos held in
detention for a month. By year’s end six of the seven had been
deported.
* Non-Sunnis face constant threats of deportation and
discrimination, particularly if they fall into the hands of the
Islamic justice system. Because of their infidel status, Hindus —
of which there are 1.4 million — receive only one-sixteenth of the
amount of compensation a male Muslim receives. Judges are also free
to discount the testimony of non-practicing Sunnis.
* Finally, government-funded imams preaching at
government-funded mosques regularly spread hatred of the West and,
in particular, Israel. The same goes for government-funded media.
All children, regardless of their beliefs, must attend public
schools at which they are indoctrinated into the radical Sunni
Wahhabi tradition.
And these are just a few of the religious abuses. Saudi human
rights violations would take up a sizable segment of
cyberspace.
ALL OF THAT WOULD BE bad enough, but the Saudis are not content to
bully their own and spread fear and loathing within their own
kingdom. For decades the Saudi government has been exporting
Wahhabism worldwide. Bill Maher joked that “when you drive alone,
you drive with Bin Laden,” but it is no joke. The government of
Saudi Arabia spends billions of dollars of oil revenues funding
Wahhabi mosques from Afghanistan to Los Angeles. As Kenneth
Timmerman notes in his book Preachers of Hate, that would
be like the Bush administration funding Evangelical churches
worldwide, and appointing government officials to head the World
Council of Churches.
Foreign policy realists would argue there are more important
concerns than religious freedom in Saudi Arabia. Regional
stability, for one. It is in the U.S.’s interests not to lean on
King Abdullah too heavily lest even more radical elements succeed
in overthrowing the royal family. If that were to happen the U.S.
would risk losing its military bases, an important Middle East
ally, and who knows what might happen to the price of oil? Better
to prop up the House of Saud and avert our eyes to its moral
transgressions. Besides, doesn’t the State Department report say
that the Saudi population is overwhelmingly opposed to the concept
of mosque and state separation?
Incredibly, it does. Which doesn’t say a lot for the U.S. State
Department. Any sophomore who has studied non-democratic societies
knows that your average citizen will not criticize a dictatorial
regime unless one is looking for trouble. On the contrary, one has
every reason to prevaricate. Nothing in the report, however, hints
that such factors may skew its findings. The State Department will
admit that “fear and consequent secrecy surrounding any non-Muslim
religious activity contributes to reluctance to disclose any
information that might harm persons under government
investigation.” At least the State Department admits Saudi Arabia
is a fear society, and not just a quaint little Arab kingdom stuck
in some romantic Bedouin past.
In September, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave the
Saudis another six months to show progress in their treatment of
religious minorities. Otherwise she threatened vague “trade or
other restrictions.” Meanwhile the Saudis continue to make empty
promises. And every one is happy. Except the victims of
Saudi-funded hate.
For reasons of realpolitik and stability America has been
unwilling to pressure the Saudis on reforms. As the Saudis’ chief
ally, trading partner, and supplier of military technology, this
puts the U.S. in the embarrassing position of tacit accomplice.
Yes, America needs Saudi oil. It needs Saudi assistance in
capturing terrorists, an inordinate amount who seem to be at large
in the kingdom. To a lesser extent it needs its Saudi bases, though
its facilities at Diego Garcia worked well enough during the Cold
War. But the Saudis need the U.S. more. U.S. non-military exports
to Saudi Arabia were $4.6 billion in 2003; exports of military and
other services average $2 billion per year. The Saudis need
Americans to buy and refine their oil. They need U.S. military
protection. And they need to appear to the world to be fighting
terrorism, whether they are or not.
WHAT SHOULD THE U.S. DO? At the very least the Bush Administration
should follow the recommendations of the U.S. Commission on
International Religious Freedom to ban exports of high-technology
items with police or military applications to Saudi agencies
responsible for religious-freedom violations. This should be
followed by a ban on U.S. travel for Saudi officials engaged in
such violations, or who globally propagate an ideology promoting
hate, intolerance and human rights violations.
If that doesn’t do the trick the U.S. should state in no
uncertain terms that unless the Saudis grant religious rights to
non-Sunnis, disband the religious police, and muzzle its preachers
of hate it will withdrawal its troops. Further the Saudis must
allow nongovernmental organizations to monitor religious freedom.
And the U.S. should also demand a timetable when Saudi women will
be granted the right to vote. Linkage is the key. With the right
kind of pressure the Saudis will cave in to U.S. demands. The
regime has too much at stake. Its very existence, for one.
Besides America doesn’t need any more SOBs in its corner.
