Saudis Granted Waiver On Sanctions-- Progress On Religious Freedom Cited

The Washington Post reported yesterday that the United States has found that Saudi Arabia has made enough progress in improving religious tolerance that the U.S. is extending a waiver of sanctions that would otherwise have been called for under the International Religious Freedom Act. The waiver was originally granted in 2004 after the State Department first classified Saudi Arabia as a "country of particular concern", a designation that was continued in 2006. (See prior posting.) The State Department's release on the briefing to Congress by Ambassador John Hanford said that the Saudis are pursuing a number of policies to promote greater religious freedom and tolerance:

These include policies designed to halt the dissemination of intolerant literature and extremist ideology, both within Saudi Arabia and around the world, to protect the right to private worship, and to curb harassment of religious practice. For example, the Saudi Government is conducting a comprehensive revision of textbooks and educational curricula to weed out disparaging remarks toward religious groups, a process that will be completed in one to two years. The Saudi Government is also retraining teachers and the religious police to ensure that the rights of Muslims and non-Muslims are protected and to promote tolerance and combat extremism. The Saudi Government has also created a Human Rights Commission to address the full range of human rights complaints.