With Friends Like These...

The U.S. and Saudi Arabia have had full diplomatic relations since the early 1930s. Each year the two nations exchange billions of dollars through trade in goods such as oil, machinery and transport vehicles, food and live animals, etc . . . (http://www.saudia-online.com/saudi.htm) During the Gulf War (1990-1991) the Saudi kingdom allowed the U.S. (and its coalition partners) to use its territory as a military base to deploy forces against Saddam Hussein. In 2006, the NY Times reported that the U.S. “maintained its role as the leading supplier of weapons to the developing world,” and that one of the three biggest buyers was Saudi Arabia.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/01/us/01cnd-weapons.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)

Clearly, the 75-year relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia has been mutually beneficial, which is why economic cooperation between the two nations continues to expand.
Yet, it is difficult to reconcile the image of Saudi Arabia as a western ally with the stark reality of the kingdom’s enforcement of Wahabism, “an austere form of Islam that insists on a literal interpretation of the Koran.” (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/analyses/wahhabism.html)

During a Frontline investigation of Wahabism a few years ago, PBS interviewed several Islamists about the Saudi religion and its teachings. One person named Ahmed Ali who was raised in Saudi Arabia gave an example of what is taught to ninth-grade students:
“’The day of judgment will not arrive until Muslims fight Jews, and Muslim will kill Jews until the Jew hides behind a tree or a stone. Then the tree and the stone will say, 'Oh Muslim, oh, servant of God, this is a Jew behind me. Come and kill him.' Except one type of a tree, which is a Jew tree. That will not say that.’ This is taught for 14-year-old boys in Saudi Arabia.” (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/analyses/wahhabism.html)

Why do I raise this issue today? CBS News reports that Saudi Arabia’s “top judiciary official [Sheik Saleh al-Lihedan ] has issued a religious decree saying it is permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV networks that broadcast immoral content.” (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/12/world/main4443857.shtml)

During a radio program recently al-Lihedan stated the following to his listeners:

“’What does the owner of these networks think, when he provides seduction, obscenity and vulgarity?’ he said.
‘‘Those calling for corrupt beliefs, certainly it's permissible to kill them,’ he said. ‘Those calling for sedition, those who are able to prevent it but don't, it is permissible to kill them.’"
This fatwa will come as little surprise to anyone who has followed the Saudi religious police.

In June 2005 Christian World News reported that “over the past three months, close to 100 Christians—all of them guest workers in Saudi Arabia —have been arrested by Saudi religious police. The guest workers’ crime? Worshipping Jesus Christ.” (http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/CWN/061005SaudiArabia.aspx) That’s right.

Non-Saudi’s prevented from freely worshipping their religions. But if you think that is bad, it’s even worse if you are a Saudi who rejects Islam: “Recently, a Saudi member of the religious police cut his daughter’s tongue off and burned her to death for converting to Christianity.” (http://viktorb.wordpress.com/2008/09/09/christian-persecution-saudi-arabia/)

Politics do makes strange bedfellows and it is naïve to believe that we can only trade with those who agree with us on cultural and religious issues. But shouldn’t we be doing more to object to this mistreatment of others on religious grounds? At some point a nation has to look at itself and wonder whether it is slowly selling its soul for material benefits and comforts. We need to speak out more against this inhumanity. And although things won’t change overnight, we need to remember an ancient Chinese proverb: “Even the longest of journeys begins with a single step.”

Donald Tremblay