Saudia Arabia is makes State Department “concern” list:
ADDITION OF SAUDI ARABIA TO STATE DEPARTMENT’S “CPC” LIST IS MILESTONE
WASHINGTON, DC, September 15, 2004 — Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom today welcomed the U.S. State Department’s designation of Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Eritrea to its list of “countries of particular concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act. Other countries on the list are Burma, China, Iran, North Korea and Sudan.
Center Director Nina Shea said, “the addition of Saudi Arabia for the first time to the State Department’s short list of egregious religious persecutors marks a new day in the world struggle against extreme religious intolerance. This intolerance is the ideology that undergirds Islamic terror.”
Shea added: “For decades, the government of Saudi Arabia has been responsible for the proliferation worldwide of an extreme Wahhabi interpretation of Islam that fosters virulent hatred, alienation and even violence toward Christians, Jews and other religious believers including moderate Muslims. Fueled by petrodollars, Saudi efforts in this regard have begun to radicalize Muslim communities far beyond the Arabian Peninsula including in Northern Nigeria, Indonesia, and Central Asia.”