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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.
Religious apartheid
 | It has been suggested that this article be merged into Status of religious freedom in Saudi Arabia. (Discuss) Proposed since August 2007. |
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."
Saudi religious police recently detained Shiite pilgrims participating in the Haj, allegedly calling them "infidels in Mecca "
Until March 1, 2004, the official government website stated that Jews were forbidden from entering the country.
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.
According Saudi policy for tourists, it is not permissible to bring Christian or Jewish religious symbols and books into the kingdom and they are subject to confiscation
Notes
- Saudi Institute (2001).
- Congressional Human Rights Caucus (2002).
- Taheri (2003).
- United States Department of State. Saudi Arabia, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2004, February 28, 2005.
- Dershowitz (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.
References
- To express the policy of the United States to ensure the divestiture... 109th CONGRESS, 1st Session, H. R. 4543.
- Andersen, Margaret L. & Taylor Howard Francis. Sociology: Understanding a Diverse Society, Thomson Wadsworth, 2006. ISBN 0534617166
- Bradley, Harriet. Gender, Polity, 2007. ISBN 0745623778
- "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.
- Dershowitz, Alan. Treatment of Israel strikes an Alien Note, National Post, November 5, 2002.
- Dworkin, Andrea. A Feminist Looks at Saudi Arabia, 1978. In "Letters from a War Zone: Writings 1976-1989", Lawrence Hill Books, Reprint edition (May 28, 1993). ISBN 1-55652-185-5
- Religious Apartheid in Saudi Arabia, Freedom House website. Retrieved July 11, 2006.
- Handrahan, L.M. Gender Apartheid and Cultural Absolution: Saudi Arabia and the International Criminal Court, Human Rights Internet, Human Rights Tribune, Vol. 8, No. 1, Spring 2001.
- Hanigsberg, Julia E. "Glamour Law: Feminism through the Looking Glass of Popular Women's Magazines", in MacCluskey, Martha T. Feminism, Media, and the Law, Oxford University Press US, 1997. ISBN 0195096290
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- Jensen, Rita Henley. Taking the Gender Apartheid Tour in Saudi Arabia, Women's eNews, 03/07/2005.
- Kaldor, Mary. "Global Terrorism", in Giddens, Anthony. The Progressive Manifesto: New Ideas for the Centre-Left, Policy, 2003. ISBN 0745632955
- King, Colbert I. Saudi Arabia's Apartheid, The Washington Post, December 22, 2001.
- Majedi, Azar. Sexual Apartheid is a Product of Political Islam, Medusa - the Journal of the Centre for Women and Socialism, December 2002.
- Mayer, Elizabeth Ann. Islam and Human Rights: Tradition and Politics, Westview Press, 1999. ISBN 0813335043
- McNeill, Daniel. The Face: A Natural History, Back Bay Books, 2000. ISBN 0316588121
- Pipes, Daniel. Miniatures: views of Islamic and Middle Eastern politics, Transaction Publishers, 2003. ISBN 0765802155
- Saudi Institute. US State Department supports religious apartheid in Saudi Arabia, November 5, 2001.
- Stromquist, Nelly P. Education in a Globalized World: The Connectivity of Economic Power, Technology, and Knowledge, Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. ISBN 0742510980
- Taheri, Amir. Apartheid, Saudi Style, New York Post, May 22, 2003.
- Whitaker, Brian. Veil power, "Special Report: Saudi Arabia", The Guardian, February 21, 2006.