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U.S. plays down Saudi violations of religious freedom

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Monday, November 5, 2001
WASHINGTON Ñ The State Department has declined to list Saudi Arabia as a nation attempting "to control religious belief or practice." The department issued a report this weekend, "The International Religious Freedom Report for 2001," that covers the period of July 2000 to June 30, 2001.

Saudi Arabia was the only country in the report described as being completely intolerant of religion other than Islam. The report also cited Saudi arrests of non-Sunni Muslims, Middle East Newsline reported.

Officials said Saudi Arabia was not added to the list despite its support of the Taliban movement, regarded as one of the worst violators of religious freedom in the world. Burma, China, Iran, Iraq and Sudan remain on the list and North Korea was added.

The administration is intent on maintaining Arab support for its military campaign in Afghanistan.

"Freedom of religion does not exist in Saudi Arabia," the report said.

"The situation has not changed in Saudi Arabia," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. "This decision [was] based on the criteria of the report that has been made twice before, and Saudi Arabia was not found to be subject to the provisions before. So given that there has been no change, no significant change one way or the other in the situation regarding religious freedom in Saudi Arabia, one would not expect the designation to change."

Boucher said the criteria of those countries of particular concern relate to their treatment of Christian minorities. Saudi Arabia bans the worship of all religions other than Islam and has arrested Christian activists from Africa.

The report said Saudi religious police and religious vigilantes acting on their own harassed, assaulted, and detained citizens and foreigners. Some members of the Shi'ite minority continued to face institutionalized political and economic discrimination, including restrictions on the practice of their faith, the report said.

Senior U.S. officials, the report said, have raised the issue of religious freedom with government officials over the last year. The report said U.S. diplomats have also protested the detention of Filipino worshippers.

The government requires all citizens to be Muslim and continues to prohibit all public manifestations of non-Muslim religions. The government has stated publicly that it recognizes the right of non-Muslims to worship in private; however, the distinction between public and private worship is not defined clearly, and at times the government detained or interfered with non-Muslims engaged in private worship services, in effect forcing most non-Muslims to worship in a manner such as to avoid discovery."

Meanwhile, Saudi officials have launched a media offensive to counter accusations within the United States that Riyad supports Osama Bin Laden.

Former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki Al Faisal said Riyad had sought and obtained Afghanistan's permission for the extradition of Bin Laden in 1998. But the ruling Taliban movement changed its mind after Bin Laden bombed U.S. embassies in east Africa.

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