WASHINGTON — The United States bowed to domestic pressure Wednesday and for the first time named Saudi Arabia, a key ally, as one of the world's worst violators of religious freedom.
The Middle Eastern kingdom was listed as "a country of particular concern" in the State Department's Annual Report on International Religious Freedom 2004. By law, that listing requires the Bush administration to consider possible action against Saudi Arabia, including sanctions, though there was no immediate indication that the U.S. was prepared to take such a step.
"Freedom of religion does not exist," the report states. "It is not recognized or protected under the country's laws and basic religious freedoms are denied to all but those who adhere to the state-sanctioned version of Sunni Islam."
Saudi Arabia joined Vietnam and Eritrea as newcomers to a list of those considered egregious offenders that already included Myanmar (formerly Burma), China, Cuba, Sudan, Iran and North Korea.
Wednesday's actions, which reportedly came after months of agonizing within the State Department, mark the first time a close ally of the United States has been included in the category.
The United States has long viewed Saudi Arabia as a dependable Arab friend in the restive Middle East. The kingdom is also the world's largest single supplier of oil and has worked to counter the rise in energy prices to record levels.
Those factors have contributed to the United States' reluctance to confront the kingdom on its human rights record, critics have complained.
Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee and co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, said the listing reflected what he called "a sea change" in the public perception of Saudi Arabia that has occurred in the United States since the Sept. 11attacks.
He noted that a majority of the airplane hijackers involved in the attacks were Saudi and that it was Saudi money that funded many fundamentalist religious schools in the Middle East that preached a syllabus anchored in hatred of the United States.
"For years there was an unspoken attitude that ... friends like the British, the French and the Germans could be criticized, but Saudi Arabia was beyond criticism," he said. "This is just a straw in the wind that Saudi Arabia will be treated just like any other country."
