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Template:Allegations of apartheid Allegations of Saudi Arabian apartheid draw an analogy from the policies of apartheid era South Africa to those of Saudi Arabia. Those who use the analogy point to Saudi treatment of women and religious minorities, policies of physical separation between the two groups, and/or allege second-class treatment of these groups in Saudi Arabia.
Treatment of women
See also Human rights in Saudi Arabia - Women's rights See also Sex segregation
Treatment of religious minorities
See also Status of religious freedom in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia's treatment of religious minorities has also been described by both Saudis and non-Saudis as "apartheid" and "religious apartheid".
Testifying before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus on June 4, 2002, in a briefing entitled "Human Rights in Saudi Arabia: The Role of Women"", Ali Al-Ahmed, Director of the Saudi Institute, stated:
Saudi Arabia is a glaring example of religious apartheid. The religious institutions from government clerics to judges, to religious curricula, and all religious instructions in media are restricted to the Wahhabi understanding of Islam, adhered to by less than 40% of the population. The Saudi government communized Islam, through its monopoly of both religious thoughts and practice. Wahhabi Islam is imposed and enforced on all Saudis regardless of their religious orientations. The Wahhabi sect does not tolerate other religious or ideological beliefs, Muslim or not. Religious symbols by Muslims, Christians, Jewish and other believers are all banned. The Saudi embassy in Washington is a living example of religious apartheid. In its 50 years, there has not been a single non-Sunni Muslim diplomat in the embassy. The branch of Imam Mohamed Bin Saud University in Fairfax, Virginia instructs its students that Shia Islam is a Jewish conspiracy.
Amir Taheri quotes a Shi'ite businessman from Dhahran as saying "It is not normal that there are no Shi'ite army officers, ministers, governors, mayors and ambassadors in this kingdom. This form of religious apartheid is as intolerable as was apartheid based on race."
Non-Muslims and Mecca
According to Alan Dershowitz, "in Saudi Arabia apartheid is practiced against non-Muslims, with signs indicating that Muslims must go to certain areas and non-Muslims to others." On December 14, 2005, Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Democrat Representative Shelley Berkley introduced a bill in Congress urging American divestiture from Saudi Arabia, and giving as its rationale (among other things) "Saudi Arabia is a country that practices religious apartheid and continuously subjugates its citizenry, both Muslim and non-Muslim, to a specific interpretation of Islam." Freedom House showed on its website, on a page tiled "Religious apartheid in Saudi Arabia", a picture of a sign showing Muslim-only and non-Muslim roads.
References
- US State Department supports religious apartheid in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Institute, November 5, 2001.
- "Human Rights in Saudi Arabia: The Role of Women", Congressional Human Rights Caucus, Testimony of Ali Al-Ahmed, Director of the Saudi Institute, June 4, 2002.
- Taheri, Amir. Apartheid, Saudi Style, New York Post, May 22, 2003.
- Dershowitz, Alan. Treatment of Israel strikes an Alien Note, National Post, November 5, 2002.
- To express the policy of the United States to ensure the divestiture... 109th CONGRESS, 1st Session, H. R. 4543.
- Religious Apartheid in Saudi Arabia, Freedom House website. Retrieved July 11, 2006.