A concurrent resolution calling on the Government of Saudi Arabia to cease supporting religious ideologies that promote hatred, intolerance, violence, and other abuses of internationally recognized human rights and urging the Government of the United States to promote religious freedom in Saudi Arabia.

        [Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Con. Res. 131 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

108th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. CON. RES. 131

Calling on the Government of Saudi Arabia to cease supporting religious
ideologies that promote hatred, intolerance, violence, and other abuses
of internationally recognized human rights and urging the Government of
the United States to promote religious freedom in Saudi Arabia.

_______________________________________________________________________

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

July 22, 2004

Mr. Schumer (for himself and Ms. Collins) submitted the following
concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign
Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Calling on the Government of Saudi Arabia to cease supporting religious
ideologies that promote hatred, intolerance, violence, and other abuses
of internationally recognized human rights and urging the Government of
the United States to promote religious freedom in Saudi Arabia.

Whereas the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for
2003 concluded that human rights conditions remain poor in the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia;
Whereas the Department of State's International Religious Freedom Report for
2003 concluded that religious freedom does not exist in Saudi Arabia;
Whereas in a report on Saudi Arabia published in May 2003, the United States
Commission on International Religious Freedom has found that religious
freedom does not exist in Saudi Arabia and has concluded that the
Government of Saudi Arabia forcefully limits the public practice or
expression of religion to the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam;
Whereas the Government of Saudi Arabia severely restricts non-Wahhabi places of
worship and denies non-Wahhabi clerics entry into the country;
Whereas security forces of the Government of Saudi Arabia continue to abuse and
torture detainees and prisoners, including individuals held on account
of their religious beliefs or practices;
Whereas religious law is interpreted and enforced in Saudi Arabia in a manner
that affects every aspect of the lives of women in Saudi Arabia and
results in serious violations of the human rights of such women;
Whereas the Government of Saudi Arabia severely limits the freedom of movement
of women and discriminates against women in education, employment,
access to healthcare, marriage, and inheritance, among other things;
Whereas the religious police in Saudi Arabia, known as the ``Mutawaa'',
arbitrarily raid private homes and exercise broadly defined, vague
powers, including the ability to use physical force and detain
individuals without due process;
Whereas the Mutawaa intimidate, harass, abuse, and detain citizens and
foreigners of both sexes;
Whereas, although the Government of Saudi Arabia has publicly affirmed that all
residents of Saudi Arabia have the liberty to worship in private, for
several years, and as recently as the fall of 2003, Shi'a clerics have
been arrested, imprisoned, and tortured for expressing their religious
views and some foreign workers have been arrested, detained, tortured,
and deported for worshipping in private;
Whereas offensive and discriminatory language has been found in school textbooks
sponsored by Saudi Arabia, sermons in mosques, and articles and
commentary in the media about Jews, Christians, and other non-Muslims;
Whereas in March 2004, the Government of Saudi Arabia detained and imprisoned
several democratic reformers for criticizing the strict religious
environment and the slow pace of reform in Saudi Arabia;
Whereas the Government of Saudi Arabia, which enjoys access to the United States
media, refuses to allow the transmission of Radio Sawa, which promotes
values of democracy, tolerance, and respect for human rights, in Saudi
Arabia;
Whereas the Government of Saudi Arabia funds mosques, university chairs, Islamic
study centers, and religious schools known as madrassas, all over the
world, in at least 30 countries;
Whereas there have been several reports that some members of extremist and
militant groups that promote intolerance, and in some cases violence, in
the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central and South Asia, and Africa have
been trained as clerics in Saudi Arabia;
Whereas there have been a growing number of reports that funding originating in
Saudi Arabia, including, in some cases, from individuals and
organizations associated with the Government of Saudi Arabia and the
royal family, has been used to finance religious schools and other
activities that allegedly support religious intolerance, and, in some
cases, violence, associated with certain Islamic militant and extremist
organizations in several parts of the world;
Whereas in response to an April 2004 request of the Committee on Governmental
Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Government Reform of the
House of Representatives, the Comptroller General of the United States
is undertaking a study to determine what the Government of the United
States is doing to identify, monitor, and counter the influence of
funding and support from Saudi Arabia for individuals, organizations,
and institutions that advocate violence, intolerance, or religious
extremism outside of Saudi Arabia; and
Whereas the Government of Saudi Arabia has made public statements pledging
political, economic, and educational reforms and the improved treatment
of foreign residents, but it does not appear that such pledges are being
carried out in Saudi Arabia: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring),
That Congress--
(1) calls on the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia--
(A) to stop providing funding for religious
activities that promote hatred, violence, and human
rights violations;
(B) to stop providing diplomatic status to Islamic
clerics and educators teaching outside of Saudi Arabia
who are not legally entitled to such status;
(C) to close any Islamic affairs section of an
embassy of Saudi Arabia that has been responsible for
propagating intolerance;
(D) to uphold the international commitments made by
Saudi Arabia by respecting and protecting the human
rights of citizens and foreigners of both sexes in
Saudi Arabia;
(E) to ratify and fully comply with international
human rights instruments and cooperate with United
Nations human rights mechanisms, and, in particular, to
sign, ratify, and implement the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights done at New York December
16, 1966;
(F) to immediately implement promised judicial,
political, economic, and educational reforms;
(G) to cease messages of hatred, intolerance, or
incitement to violence against non-Wahhabi Muslims and
non-Muslim religious groups in the educational
curricula and textbooks, mosques, and media controlled
by the Government of Saudi Arabia;
(H) to permit the establishment of independent,
nongovernmental organizations to advance human rights
and to promote tolerance in Saudi Arabia, and to take
action to create an independent human rights commission
for the same purposes;
(I) to safeguard the freedom of non-Muslims, and of
those Muslims who do not follow the Wahhabi
interpretation of Islam, to worship in private in Saudi
Arabia;
(J) to permit non-Wahhabi places of worship, such
as churches, to function openly in special compounds or
zones for foreigners or in unadorned buildings
designated for this purpose; and
(K) to permit the broadcasting of Radio Sawa
throughout Saudi Arabia; and
(2) urges the President--
(A) in both public and private fora, to raise
concerns at the highest levels with the Government of
Saudi Arabia regarding the ongoing and repeated
violations of internationally recognized human rights,
including the right to freedom of religion or belief,
in Saudi Arabia;
(B) to designate Saudi Arabia a country of
particular concern under section 402(b)(1)(A) of the
International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C.
6442(b)(1)(A)) for the systematic, ongoing, and
egregious violations of religious freedom occurring in
Saudi Arabia;
(C) to encourage the Government of Saudi Arabia to
expeditiously implement the publicly stated plans for
judicial, political, economic, and educational reform
in Saudi Arabia;
(D) to encourage the Government of Saudi Arabia to
cease any funding of efforts to propagate outside of
Saudi Arabia any religious ideology that explicitly
promotes hate, intolerance, and other human rights
violations, including violence;
(E) to request that the Government of Saudi Arabia
provide an accounting of what kinds of support from
Saudi Arabia go to religious schools, mosques, centers
of learning, and other religious organizations
globally, including in the United States, and the names
of such institutions;
(F) to develop and expand specific initiatives and
programs in Saudi Arabia to advance human rights,
including religious freedom, the rights of women, and
the rule of law, including, the Greater Middle East
Initiative, and the Department of State's Middle East
Partnership Initiative, Middle East Democracy Fund, and
Human Rights and Democracy Fund, international
broadcasting, including overcoming obstacles to
broadcasting Radio Sawa throughout Saudi Arabia, and
other public diplomacy programs; and
(G) to provide an unclassified report to Congress
on the efforts of the Government of the United States
to raise concerns regarding human rights, including
religious freedom, with the Government of Saudi Arabia,
and the results of such efforts and the results of any
initiative or program described in subparagraph (F).
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