“An alarming development”: the USCIRF denounces “the continuing repression of religious minorities” in Saudi Arabia

The US Commission for International Religious Freedom denounces an “alarming development that undermines the Saudi narrative of reform”.

The United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has just published a report on the conditions of religious freedom in Saudi Arabia.

If it recognizes "significant changes towards greater religious freedom", referring to "reforms of the male guardianship system and the removal of certain passages intolerant to religion in textbooks", the organization denounces the detention prisoners for “peaceful religious dissent”. For USCIRF, this is an "alarming development that undermines the Saudi reform narrative".

The report denounces the fact that religious minorities, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and other non-Muslim communities, do not have the possibility of “building places of worship or manifesting their beliefs in public”.

USCIRF, however, points to the optimism of a leader of the Christian community in the Gulf “that the current restrictions on public Christian worship in Saudi Arabia could be 'reviewed and relaxed'”.

In its last annual report, the USCIRF placed Saudi Arabia on the list of countries of particular concern (CPC) for its continued violations of religious freedom.

MC