Saudi Arabia Makes US ‘Naughty List’ Of Severe Religious Freedom Violators

Despite the attempt to put on an “all as well” and “business as usual” face amid the Saudi Aramco IPO, and now that the world seems to have ‘moved on’ over a year after the Jamal Khashoggi murder, the kingdom has again this year made the State Department’s naughty list of countries considered severe and consistent violators of religious freedom. 

On Friday the US State Department designated or re-designated nine as ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ over their tolerance for “violations of religious freedom.” Included is close US ally Saudi Arabia as well as other official allies like Pakistan, but also adversaries like China and Russia, for committing or allowing “systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious violations of religious freedom.”

“The protection of religious freedom is a top Trump Administration foreign policy priority.  Persecution and discrimination on the basis of religion or belief exists in every region of the world,” an official statement by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reads. “The United States continues to work diligently to promote religious freedom and combat abuses.  These recent designations continue that important work.”

“On Dec. 18, 2019, the Department of State re-designated Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan as Countries of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 for having engaged in or tolerated ‘systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious violations of religious freedom’,” says the statement.

While this doesn’t mean a US ally like Saudi Arabia will face sanctions over the listing, it could be used as diplomatic leverage related to any future deals.

Christianity and other non-Islamic faiths remain banned, especially in public expression, with the exception of foreign workers practicing their faith in private dwellings. Conversion from Islam remains punishable by death, and the kingdom has over the past years regularly executed individuals on “witchcraft” and “blasphemy” charges. 

BREAKING: @StateDept designates even close ally #Saudi on list of worst religious freedom abusers, having engaged in or tolerated “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.”

Shocking they couldn’t lobby their way off of this!

https://t.co/GLRYcwV7ai

— Sarah Leah Whitson (@sarahleah1) December 20, 2019

The powerful Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which are essentially religious police enforcers, ensure citizens maintain strict adherence to the official Wahhabi Islam state religion and Sharia law. 

Pompeo said further in his statement, “No country, entity or individual should be able to persecute people of faith without accountability,” however we doubt that America’s decades-long oil and weapons gulf partner will ever actually face Washington accountability, given what the kingdom has already been able to get away with.