IRF VISIT SPARKS DISCUSSION ON HOW FAR SAUDI

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 JEDDAH 000227

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR NEA/ARP, IRF FOR AZAIBECK, IO, DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/12/2014
TAGS: PHUM KIRF KISL PGOV SA
SUBJECT: IRF VISIT SPARKS DISCUSSION ON HOW FAR SAUDI
ARABIA SHOULD GO IN PROMOTING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

REF: 08JEDDAH0415

JEDDAH 00000227 001.2 OF 003


Classified By: Consul General Martin R. Quinn for reasons 1.4(b) and (d
)


1. (C) SUMMARY: May 2-4 visit of International Religious
Freedom officer, and meetings with Saudis, expats and OIC
officials, sparked discussion on Saudi Arabia's basic posture
on IRF issues. Meetings revealed that many Saudis continue to
question the rationale for respecting non-Muslim rights in an
all-Muslim country governed by the Quran. While the
prevailing, semi-official Saudi attitude is that there are no
problems with individual non-Muslims praying at home, at the
same time there is little support for foreign laborers having
rights to freely congregate for prayer. Shi'a living in
Jeddah continue to express fears and express feelings that
they are treated as second class citizens. END SUMMARY.

2. (C) EDUCATORS SAY SITUATION HAS GOTTEN WORSE SINCE THE
80's: At a roundtable of local school principals and
educators, two women commented that religious and other
expressions of personal freedom in the Kingdom have been on
the decline since the 1980s, citing the Juhaiman Utaibi
seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979 as the specific
turning point. Prior to this time, it is maintained, Jeddah
schools were allowed to hold prom nights with music and dance
and male supervisors were permitted to work in girls'
schools. Thirty years ago women were not forced to wear the
neck-to-ankle black abayas. Interlocutors claim that the
Egyptian and Syrian Muslim brotherhood was a key force in
brainwashing a whole generation of Saudis with extremist
ideology during the 1970's. One contact noted that that
Mecca and Medina have been "hijacked by people from 1000
miles away," referring to religious authorities in Riyadh and
the Kingdom's central Najd region.

3. (C) TEACHERS SPEW HATE, NOT THE CURRICULUM: Dr. Maisoun El
Dakhell of King Abdul-Aziz University noted that it is not
the curriculum in Saudi schools that promotes intolerance,
but often the teacher's personal interpretation. She
recalled several incidents in which Saudi (and other Arab)
secondary school and university teachers taught students to
"hate" other religions, including Shi,a. She recounted one
instance in which a teacher told her student that "a Sunni
woman is not allowed to marry a Shiite man because in the
Shiite holy books it states that an observant Shi,a cannot
be accepted into the Holy Mosque unless he/she kills a
Sunni."

4. (C) JEDDAH SHI'A HIGHLIGHT DIFFICULTIES: Two members of
the local Shi'a community in Jeddah complained that their
lives are difficult and they live in constant fear of
Ministry of Interior security forces -- similar to claims the
community has made in the past (reftel). In particular, they
noted a fear of the security services and pointed to
incidents where they have been personally interrogated or
threatened due to their worship practices. Though both men
are successful professionals, they noted that the road to
success for Shi'a is often difficult as employers are not
likely to promote an employee if he is known to be Shi,a.
Many Shi'a are found living in the slums of Jeddah. They
claim that SAG does not accurately report the number of
Shi,a living in the Kingdom. They believe that approximately
15 to 20 percent of the population is Shi'a while official
SAG figures represent the minority as only 10% of the
population.

5. (C) ETHIOPIANS AND SAUDIS WEIGH PLIGHT OF FOREIGN
CHRISTIANS: Muktar Mohammed, a labor and welfare officer at
the Ethiopian consulate, explained that in general Christian
Ethiopians do not encounter significant problems in the
Kingdom. However, most who choose to worship do so in the
confines of their homes. Protestants tend to be more active
and are more likely to arrange small worship services than
are the Ethiopian Orthodox. Some Christians in the Kingdom
seeking work represent themselves as Muslims coming for
pilgrimage; some of these eventually convert to Islam. Since
Christians do not hold large worship services, they are
rarely confronted by Saudi authorities. However, the
Ethiopian Consulate has received messages from unidentified
callers asking whether the consulate is trying to convert
Muslims to Christianity; Ethiopian consular officer
speculates that such calls emanate from "the security
services." There have been random, unsubstantiated reports
that Saudis are being proselytized in Mecca by Ethiopian
Christians. At a separate meeting, one Saudi suggested that
non-Muslims have a choice about whether to come to the
Kingdom and should carefully weigh the sacrifice of their
religious freedom before deciding to come. At a ConGen
Jeddah gathering attended mostly by intellectuals and Jeddawi
elite, the tone was markedly different with one contact
stating he would be pleased to attend church services if they

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were permitted in Saudi Arabia.

6. (C) CEMETERY FOR NON-MUSLIMS: IRF officer paid a visit to
Jeddah's cemetery for non-Muslims. An approximately half acre
plot, the nineteenth century cemetery lies behind an unmarked
wall in a busy downtown area of Jeddah. The burial, is
poorly maintained with six rows of tombstones. Most stones
are inscribed with the names of the deceased while some
simply bear the individual's name. (A disproportionately
large number seem to be infants from the Philippines and
India giving rise to speculation that they were the unwanted
children of domestic servants.) The Chadian custodian/grave
digger reported that vandals occasionally enter the cemetery
to desecrate headstones. He also claimed that the Mutawwa
(religious police) once visited the cemetery to complain
about the crosses carved on some of the tombstones, but never
returned. Surprisingly, two larger headstones from the early
20th century carried still-legible Hebrew and German
inscriptions.

7. (C) OIC CLAIMS SUPPORT FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM; FIQH ACADEMY
REVIEWS PENALTY FOR APOSTASY: At a meeting with IRF officer
and OIC officials, Ambassador Hemayat Uddin, Director General
for Cultural and Social Affairs, commented that religious
freedom is important, connecting the principle to OIC's
campaign to combat Islamaphobia. "Freedom of religion is
sacrosanct, but there has to be a limit so that freedom of
speech does not encroach on others." Ufuk Gokcen, advisor to
Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, mentioned that the
status of minorities is an OIC priority: "We advocate
strongly for freedom of minorities from any prosecution or
pressure." Explaining that OIC advocacy includes the freedom
to worship and practice religion, Gokcen pointed out that the
Secretary General had made a strong statement against attacks
on Christians in Iraq and pressing for the release of South
Korean hostages in Afghanistan. Gokcen was non-committal as
to whether the new Human Rights Commission of the OIC will
handle the religious freedom issue, noting that "the issue of
religious freedom is very sensitive." Hemayat Uddin believes
that the recent Durban II preparatory meeting demonstrates
that the OIC is pressing to remove inflammatory language,
mentioning that a reference to "Israel" was removed from the
text of the Durban declaration, commenting, "You have no idea
how much went into this." Discussion touched on an ongoing
conference on apostasy recently held at Sharjah University
under the auspices of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy,
an OIC-affiliated institution. Hope was expressed that the
discussion will eventually lead to the removal of the death
penalty as standard punishment for apostasy.

8. (C) INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC FORUM FOR DIALOGUE: Dr. Hamid
Bin Ahmad Al-Rifaie, President of the International Islamic
Forum for Dialogue, questioned the role that the U.S. plays
in the realm of religious freedom, (rhetorically) asking:
"Who gives the United States the authority to monitor and
impose religious freedom on the countries of the world?" He
suggested that this mission should be carried out by the
United Nations. Al-Rifaie launched into a series of
diatribes against US policy, giving scant indication of
interest in conducting an open dialogue on religious freedom.

9. (C) LACK OF UNDERSTANDING OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AS A
CONCEPT: At the National Society for Human Rights, Dr. Husein
Al-Sharif, Manager of the organization's Mecca Branch, opined
that religious freedom is a sensitive and complicated topic,
stating his conviction that it is important to work first on
developing the capacities of people at the conceptual level
since many Saudis are unable to understand or appreciate the
concept of religious freedom. He ventured that if the
average Saudi were asked the meaning of religious freedom,
the likely response would be to equate religious freedom with
freedom to perform prohibited acts of immorality. Al-Sharif
discussed the need to make the mission of his office more
relevant to the Saudi population itself. He mentioned that
the organization's good work has drawn attention and that an
appreciation of the organization's mission is slowly
developing.

10. (C) COMMENT: IRF meetings revealed that Saudis struggle
to agree on what Religious Freedom means and how far rights
should be extended. Many Saudis find the US position on
religious freedom hostile to the very essence and nature of
Saudi Arabia, founded and maintained under the rule of the
country's strict, fundamentalist interpretation of the Quran.
Despite the fact that roughly 25% of the Kingdom's residents
are foreign, with a sizeable minority of non-Muslims, the
onus remains mostly on individuals to decide before arrival
whether they can tolerate living in a religiously restrictive
environment. While non-Muslim prayer books are, in fact,
rarely confiscated at the airport, organized Christian prayer
sessions continue to irritate authorities, provoking hostile
reactions. Attitudes with regard to religious freedom are
ingrained in the Saudi mind while improvements are likely to

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occur only after significant educational and cultural reform
and evolution. END COMMENT.
QUINN