During the discussion on
the Iran nuclear deal, it has been strange to hear US politicians fiercely
condemn Iranian human rights abuses while remaining silent about worse abuses
by US ally Saudi Arabia. Not only is the Saudi regime repressive at home and
abroad, but US weapons and US support for the regime make Americans complicit.
So let’s look at the regime the US government counts as its close friend.
1. Saudi Arabia is
governed as an absolutist monarchy by a huge clan, the Saud family, and the
throne passes from one king to another. The Cabinet is appointed by the king,
and its policies have to be ratified by royal decree. Political parties are
forbidden and there are no national elections.
2. Criticizing the monarchy, or defending human rights, can
bring down severe and cruel punishments in addition to imprisonment. Ali
al-Nimr was targeted and arrested at the age of 17 for protesting government
corruption, and his since been sentenced to beheading and public crucifixion. Raif Badawi was sentenced to 10 years in prison and
1,000 lashes for writing a blog the government considered critical of its rule.
Waleed Abulkhair is serving a 15-year sentence for his work as a human right
attorney. New legislation effectively equates criticism of the government and other
peaceful activities with terrorism. The government tightly controls the
domestic press, banning journalists and editors who publish articles deemed
offensive to the religious establishment or the ruling authorities. Over
400,000 websites that are considered immoral or politically sensitive are
blocked. A January 2011 law requires all blogs and websites, or anyone posting
news or commentary online, to have a license from the Ministry of Information
or face fines and/or the closure of the website.
3. Saudi Arabia has one of the highest execution rates in
the world, killing scores of people each year for a range of offenses including
adultery, apostasy, drug use and sorcery. The government has conducted over 100 beheadings this year alone, often in
public squares.
4. Saudi women are
second-class citizens. The religious police enforce a policy of gender
segregation and often harass women, using physical punishment to enforce a
strict dress code. Women need the approval of a male guardian to marry, travel,
enroll in a university, or obtain a passport and they’re prohibited from
driving. According to interpretations of Sharia law, daughters generally
receive half the inheritance awarded to their brothers, and the testimony of
one man is equal to that of two women.
5. There is no freedom of
religious. Islam is the official religion, and all Saudis are required by law
to be Muslims. The government prohibits the public practice of any religion
other than Islam and restricts the religious practices of the Shiite and Sufi
Muslim minority sects. Although the government recognizes the right of
non-Muslims to worship in private, it does not always respect this right in
practice. The building of Shiite mosques is banned.
6. The Saudis export an extremist interpretation of Islam,
Wahhabism, around the globe. Over the past three decades, Saudi Arabia spent $4 billion per year on mosques, madrassas, preachers,
students, and textbooks to spread Wahhabism and anti-Western sentiment. Let’s
not forget that 15 of the 19 fanatical hijackers who carried out the 9/11
attacks were Saudis, as well as Osama bin Laden himself.
7. The country is built
and runs thanks to foreigner laborers, but the more than six million foreign
workers have virtually no legal protections. Coming from poor countries, many
are lured to the kingdom under false pretenses and forced to endure dangerous
working and living conditions. Female migrants employed in Saudi homes as
domestic workers report regular physical, sexual, and emotional abuse.
8. The Saudis are funding terrorism worldwide. A
WikiLeaks-revealed 2009 cablequotes then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying “Donors in Saudi Arabia
constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups
worldwide….More needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical
financial support base for al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Lashkar e-Tayyiba and other
terrorist groups.” In Syria the Saudis are supporting the most extreme sectarian forces and the thousands of volunteers who
rally to their call. And while the Saudi government condemns ISIS, many
experts, including 9/11 Commission Report lead author Bob Graham, believe that ISIL is a product of
Saudi ideals, Saudi money and Saudi organizational support.
9. The Saudis have used their massive military apparatus to
invade neighboring countries and quash democratic uprisings. In 2011, the Saudi
military (using US tanks) rolled into neighboring Bahrain and brutally crushed that nation’s
budding pro-democracy movement. In 2015, the Saudis intervened in an internal
conflict in Yemen, with a horrific bombing campaign (using American-made
cluster munitions and F-15 fighter jets) that has killed and injured thousands
of civilians. The conflict has created a severe humanitarian crisis affecting 80 percent of the Yemeni
people.
10. The Saudis backed a coup in Egypt that killed over 1,000 people and saw
over 40,000 political dissidents thrown into squalid prisons. While human
rights activists the world over where condemning the brutal regime of Al Sisi,
the Saudi government offered $5 billion to prop up the Egyptian coup leader.
The cozy US relationship
with the Saudis has to do with oil, weapons sales and joint opposition to Iran.
But with extremism spreading through the globe, a reduced US need for Saudi
oil, and a thawing of US relations with Iran, now is the time to start calling
for the US government to sever its ties with the Saudi monarchs.
Medea Benjamin is the cofounder of the peace group CODEPINK and the human rights group Global Exchange. She is the author of Drone Warfare: Killing by
Remote Control.
Medea Benjamin
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