Saudi Arabia Disseminating Hate Propaganda in U.S.
(January 2005)
Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom
released a report, “Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Fill American
Mosques,” exposing the dissemination of hate propaganda in America
by the government of Saudi Arabia.
The document is based on a year-long study of more than 200 original
documents, all disseminated, published or otherwise generated by Saudi
Arabia and collected from more than a dozen mosques in the United
States.
The propagation of hate ideology by Saudi Arabia is
known to be worldwide, but its occurrence within the United States has
received scant attention until now. The report concludes that the Saudi
government propaganda examined reflects a “totalitarian ideology
of hatred that can incite to violence.” The report finds: “Not
only does the government of Saudi Arabia not have a right – under
the First Amendment or any other legal document – to spread hate
ideology within U.S. borders, it is committing a human rights violation
by doing so.”
Among the key findings of the report:
· Various Saudi government publications gathered
for this study, most of which are in Arabic, assert that it is a religious
obligation for Muslims to hate Christians and Jews and warn against
imitating, befriending, or helping them in any way, or taking part in
their festivities and celebrations;
· The documents promote contempt for the United
States because it is ruled by legislated civil law rather than by totalitarian
Wahhabi-style Islamic law. They condemn democracy as un-Islamic;
· The documents stress that when Muslims are
in the lands of the unbelievers, they must behave as if on a mission
behind enemy lines. Either they are there to acquire new knowledge and
make money to be later employed in the jihad against the infidels, or
they are there to proselytize the infidels until at least some convert
to Islam. Any other reason for lingering among the unbelievers in their
lands is illegitimate, and unless a Muslim leaves as quickly as possible,
he or she is not a true Muslim and so too must be condemned. For example,
a document in the collection for the “Immigrant Muslim”
bears the words “Greetings from the Cultural Attache in Washington,
D.C.” of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia, and is published by the
government of Saudi Arabia. In an authoritative religious voice, it
gives detailed instructions on how to “hate” the Christian
and Jew: Never greet them first. Never congratulate the infidel on his
holiday. Never imitate the infidel. Do not become a naturalized citizen
of the United States. Do not wear a graduation gown because this imitates
the infidel;
· One insidious aspect of the Saudi propaganda
examined is its aim to replace traditional and moderate interpretations
of Islam with extremist Wahhabism, the officially-established religion
of Saudi Arabia. In these documents, other Muslims, especially those
who advocate tolerance, are condemned as infidels. The opening fatwa
in one Saudi embassy-distributed book, published by the Saudi Air Force,
responds to a question about a Muslim preacher in a European mosque
who taught that it is not right to condemn Jews and Christians as infidels.
The Saudi state cleric’s reply rebukes the Muslim cleric: “He
who casts doubts about their infidelity leaves no doubt about his.”
Since, under Saudi law, “apostates” from Islam can be sentenced
to death, this is an implied death threat against the tolerant Muslim
imam, as well as an incitement to vigilante violence;
· Sufi and Shiite Muslims are viciously condemned;
· For a Muslim who fails to uphold the Saudi
Wahhabi sect’s sexual mores (i.e. through homosexual activity
or heterosexual activity outside of marriage), the edicts published
by the Saudi government’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs, and found
in American mosques advise, “it would be lawful for Muslims to
spill his blood and to take his money;”
· Regarding those who convert out of Islam,
the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs explicitly asserts, they “should
be killed;”
· Saudi textbooks and other publications in
the collection, propagate a Nazi-like hatred for Jews, treat the forged
Protocols of the Elders of Zion as historical fact, and avow that the
Muslim’s duty is to eliminate the state of Israel;
· Regarding women, the Saudi publications instruct
that they should be veiled, segregated from men and barred from certain
employment and roles;
The report states: “While the government of Saudi
Arabia claims to be ‘updating’ or reforming its textbooks
and study materials within the Kingdom, its publications propagating
an ideology of hatred remain plentiful in some prominent American mosques
and Islamic centers, and continue to be a principal resource available
to students of Islam within the United States.”
Sources: Freedom
House |