I think it's gone on too long already...
But I think the press is finally starting to find a story here, and targeting the pretentious hypocrisy of the Saudi regime..
There was an interesting editorial by Colbert I. King in the Washington Post the other day, bringing up a lot of points I have discussed before:
washingtonpost.com
Statesmanship, Saudi Style
By Colbert I. King
Saturday, November 23, 2002; Page A23
It was the kind of delegation that makes Saudiphiles swell with pride. Among the eight Saudi visitors were impressively credentialed lawyers, bankers and business leaders, including two Western-educated women unadorned in abayas, the full-length black cloaks (complete with veils) that women must wear in public in Saudi Arabia. One female visitor was even wearing trousers, a clear no-no on the streets of Riyadh. It was, in truth, the kind of gathering that runs afoul of the kingdom's strictly enforced social and dress codes. But that's life over there. These men and women, presenting the Western face of Saudi Arabia, had come to town to discuss U.S.-Saudi relations over coffee with Washington Post editors and writers.
The one-hour meeting was all sweetness and light, even as our guests served up saccharine-laced barbs that only the uninitiated to Saudi sophistry might overlook. Prompted by a question, they allowed how the Saudi elite and man in the street are at a loss to understand why the United States is bent on attacking Iraq when the real trouble in the Middle East is in the occupied territories, where Palestinians are being assaulted and killed. There is a suspicion in the Arab world, they suggested more in sorrow than in anger, that American policy in the Middle East is under the heavy-handed influence of Israel. The late NFL coach Vince Lombardi used to say of football injuries: "The knee. It's always the knee." With the Saudis, it's Israel. It's always Israel.
Our guests also expressed disappointment at the way in which the United States has regressed since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Nowhere is the backward drift more apparent than in U.S. visa policy, they said.
Alas, 'tis true. Gone, since jet airliners crashed into the Pentagon and demolished the World Trade Center and thousands of lives, is Visa Express, the State Department program that allowed Saudis to obtain visas to enter the United States without having to apply in person or be interviewed. That 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers hailed from Saudi Arabia may have had something to do with the policy change. That point seemed lost on them, however.
By tightening visa regulations, one of them said, America is closing off an important avenue by which Saudis can learn about Western values, transmitting same back home. "Shame, shame, you ol' retrogrades," seemed to be the message.
Curiously, nary a visitor uttered one word about Saudi Arabia's "enlightened" visa policy.
What are your chances of visiting Saudi Arabia alone as a tourist? Slim to none. Join an approved tour group, get your itinerary blessed by the government, and then maybe, just maybe, you can enter the kingdom. Does your passport show that you were born in Israel? Prepare to wait until kingdom come.
A woman traveling to Saudi Arabia alone? If your sponsor (yes, you need one) isn't there to meet you upon arrival, expect to be confined to the airport or be seated on the next flight out. Live in Saudi Arabia and want to leave the country? If you're a woman, you'd better get the permission of the Saudi male head of your household, even if you're an adult American female married to a Saudi man. Unmarried woman? You aren't going anywhere without the okay of Daddy or a male guardian. But I digress, since the meeting wasn't about Saudi inhospitality but rather about why America comes up short in Saudi eyes.
We were treated to a gentle upbraiding for having on American soil the likes of the Rev. Jerry Falwell, televangelist Pat Robertson and the Rev. Franklin Graham, all of whom have elected to say some pretty ugly things about Islam and the Prophet. It mattered not to our visitors that President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell had publicly rejected the anti-Muslim rhetoric. The repudiation was too mild for our visitors' tastes.
If an observer didn't know any better, the impression might be gained that our visitors were inhabitants of a country where people of all faiths are welcome, and where tolerance is a national watchword.
Not so.
Saudi Arabia not only is a place where no religion but Islam is respected, it is a country where no religion but Islam can exist. Our visitors' unhappiness with the degree of official distance between the U.S. government and Christian conservatives was palpable. But they didn't seem the least bit inclined to rush back to Saudi Arabia to take on their own government for prohibiting public display of the Holy Bible, crosses, the Star of David and the Torah, religious songbooks and Christian CDs. They were eager to knock American religious extremists, but they didn't seem ready to challenge their own country's practice of fining or jailing people who publicly observe any non-Islamic religion.
That's because when it comes to Saudis, religion is a one-way street. Saudis expect to practice and proselytize their faith across the United States without hindrance. But reciprocation is out of the question. And that double standard is enforced without shame.
Saudi leaders crow about the financial contribution of King Fahd, either personally or through his government, to the propagation of Islam throughout the United States. They do that even as the mutawa, the Saudi religious police, launch search-and-destroy missions in the kingdom against practicing Christians and other non-Muslim religious observers.
And when it comes to promoting his faith, King Fahd has something to boast about. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia has spent millions doing that in America. To encourage understanding of Muslim beliefs, Saudi money created the King Abdul Aziz Chair at the University of California at Santa Barbara and the King Fahd Chair at Harvard University.
Saudi Arabia reportedly has been a supplier of funds for Islamic studies at colleges and universities across America. U.S. mosques and Islamic centers have benefited from Saudi financial support as well. Beneficiaries, according to Saudi Web sites, can be found in California, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Washington. The bottom line: Christianity, Judaism and other world religions are banned in the kingdom, even as Saudis officially nourish Islam in America.
Which brings us back to our visitors and a reality that they were too polite to throw in our faces: At the core of current U.S.-Saudi interaction is a relationship that, despite professions of mutual friendship and support, cuts only in one direction. And the kingdom -- with all of its piety and with a sharp eye on its own religious fundamentalists -- is all about keeping it that way.
e-mail: kingc@washpost.com
© 2002 The Washington Post Company |
