Christians Pay For Arms Sales

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- One day after the Bush administration announced that it would not impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia for religious persecution, the administration yesterday approved the sale of 24 UH-60L Blackhawk helicopters and other military equipment worth over $6 billion to the Saudis.

According to an article at CNSNews.com, "The U.S. Commission of International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) wants the administration to bar entry into the U.S. of Saudi officials responsible for severe religious freedom violations or for propagating an intolerant ideology..."

The recommendations of the USCIRF were made at a June 30th subcommittee hearing of the House International Relations Committee, because the Saudis have made little progress in advocating religious freedom.

In 1998, the International Religious Freedom Act was enacted, which set up the USCIRF and provided for the government to designate "countries of particular concern" (CPCs) who could then be subject to sanctions for violating religious freedoms.

In September 2004, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice designated Saudi Arabia a CPC. Others on the list are China, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Vietnam.

Since 2004, the USCIRF pressed for sanctions against Saudi Arabia. In September 2005, Rice authorized a 180-day waiver of action against the kingdom, "in order to allow additional time for the continuation of discussions leading to progress on important religious freedom issues."

Despite considerable evidence that only the Saudi brand of Sunni Muslim worship is tolerated there, the State Department said yesterday that, "the Secretary has decided to leave in place a waiver."

Despite incidents of Christians being arrested, shredding of Bibles by Customs officials, detention without trial, torture, and cruel treatment by the Muttawa "religious police", our State Department says that "the Saudi government has put in place (policies) to promote greater tolerance for members of the various religious groups".

Despite the fact that a recent report found that Saudi elementary and secondary school books "continue to promote an ideology of hatred against anyone, including Muslims, not subscribing to the strict Wahhabi sect of Islam", the State Department says they are "pleased that the government of Saudi Arabia has been willing to engage with us in a substantive manner on these critical issues".

Pardon my saying so, but this is all bull-dung. The Bush administration is turning a blind-eye towards Saudi bigotry because it doesn't want to offend a major customer of military equipment, who also happens to be a major supplier of oil, and a potential ally with basing capabilities in the Persian Gulf.

The U.S. in recent years has been the major arms supplier worldwide. Since the first Gulf War in 1991, Saudi Arabia has been the single largest customer of U.S. arms. As of 2003, Riyadh had made purchases in excess of $64.5 billion, and arms sales to the Middle East accounted for 76% of total U.S. business.

So, Christians get the short end of the stick because, after all, business is business. Christians don't sell oil, and they don't make major arms purchases. As a result, neither can they visit or work in Saudi Arabia without living in fear of arrest and torture.

For all his talk about spreading democracy and freedom around the Middle East, it appears that President Bush is more interested in spreading arms. Being a Bush supporter, I find this dichotomy very disappointing.

What may be worse, is that if the Saudi monarchy is overthrown, all those U.S. weapons will fall into the hands of the Islamo-fascists Riyadh has managed to spawn over the years.