Senate Judiciary Hearings on Hate Propaganda

OCTOBER 25th Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings On The Dissemination Of Saudi Arabian Hate Propaganda IN THE U.S.

UAC PRESS RELEASE

On October 25, 2005, the Senate Judiciary Committee will be
conducting hearings on the findings in Freedom House’s January
2005 report "Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Fill American
Mosques", detailing the propagation of Wahhabi hate literature
by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the United States. These
publications, created and distributed by the Saudi government,
explicitly advocate violence, hostility and discrimination against
Christians, Jews, non-Wahhabi Muslims, apostates of Islam,
homosexuals and women, and condemn cordial, peaceful
interfaith relations, individual freedom, equal rights and pluralistic
democracy. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not have a right -
under the First Amendment or any other legal document - to
spread this ideology of violence, hatred and discrimination within
the United States. In fact, the propagation of these xenophobic
materials constitutes a continuing breach of the international
human rights law established in the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which the United States
government, as a state party to this covenant, has an obligation
to halt immediately. In accordance with this obligation, which was
approved by the United States Senate in April 1992 and then
signed and ratified by President George H. W. Bush on June 8,
1992, the United American Committee calls on the Government
of the United States of America to enforce Article 20, Part II of
the ICCPR, which declares:

"Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that
constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall
be prohibited by law."

Consistent with this prohibition, the United American Committee
calls on the United States Government to:

1) Publicly condemn the government of the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia for violating the human rights of the American people.

2) Remove all Saudi Arabian publications from U.S. Islamic
institutions that constitute a human rights violation under the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights or any other
human rights treaty to which the United States is a state party.

3) Prohibit the distribution and possession of any and all Saudi
Arabian publications in the United States that constitute a human
rights violation under the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights or any other human rights treaty to which the
United States is a state party.

4) Prohibit the distribution and possession of official Saudi
Arabian religious publications until the government of the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia fully refrains from violating international
human rights laws regarding freedom of religion and the
incitement to religious violence, hostility and discrimination.
Furthermore, this prohibition should remain in effect as long as
official Saudi religious authorities and institutions continue to
incite Muslims to wage jihad (holy war) against American troops in
Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The propagation of Saudi Arabian religious hatred in American
communities is a cause for major public concern. This
propaganda not only constitutes a flagrant violation of
international human rights law, it also poses a genuine threat to
the freedom and security of the American people. This is the
same genocidal, xenophobic and supremacistic ideology
propagated by Osama bin Laden, Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, Omar
Abdel Rahman, al-Qaeda, HAMAS and other militant jihadis who
are responsible for the deaths of thousands of American civilians
and soldiers. The troubling presence and expanding influence of
this incitement, and the breach of international human rights law
that it constitutes, demands an immediate and effective response
from the United States government. The United American
Committee welcomes the upcoming Senate hearings and
expresses its sincerest thanks to the Freedom House Center for
Religious Freedom for bringing this critical national security matter
before the attention of the American people.

Janet Lehr

israellives@gmail.com