US Concerned About Religious Freedom in Saudi Arabia

By David Gollust

The US State Department has added Saudi Arabia to its list of Countries of Particular Concern with regard to violations¹ of religious freedom. Vietnam and Eritrea were also added to the list while Iraq, following the ouster of Saddam Hussein, was removed.
Saudi Arabia had come under severe criticism in each of the five previous State Department reports on international religious freedom.
But officials say it was added to the list of Countries of Particular Concern for the first time this year because its efforts to deal with the shortcomings, while tangible², fell short of what was needed to avoid the designation.
In the annual report, mandated⁴ under a 1998 act of Congress, Saudi Arabia was one of only two countries, North Korea being the other, in which it is said flatly that religious freedom does not exist.
Along with North Korea, the report also kept Burma, Cuba, Iran, and Sudan on the list of countries of concern. Added to the list, along with Saudi Arabia, were Eritrea and Vietnam.
The designation as a country of particular concern does not require punitive⁵ measures by the United States, but does mandate³ Secretary of State Colin Powell to engage the offending state, if the United State has relations with it, on steps it might take to improve its record.
At a news briefing to launch the new report, Mr. Powell said he intends to do just that. "Let me emphasize that we will continue engaging the Countries of Particular Concern with whom we have bilateral⁶ relationships," he said. "Our existing partnerships⁷ have flourished in numerous capacities, and they are just one of the best ways for us to encourage our friends to adopt tolerant practices."
The State Department Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom, John Hanford, said U.S. officials had been pleased with on-going discussions with Saudi leaders and that there had been sincere efforts on their part to address problems raised by the United States.
Yet he said Saudi Arabia's overall record on religious freedom left it "over the line" in terms of a critical designation.
Mr. Hanford said the main focus of U.S. concern was the Saudi government's mistreatment of Shiites and followers⁸ of other branches of Islam outside of the state-sanctioned Wahabi version of Sunni Islam.
He said members of the Shia minority, about 10 percent of the Saudi population, face political and economic discrimination, while followers of non-Muslim faiths face even more serious restrictions⁹.
"Non-Muslims are not allowed to be citizens," he said. "You must be a Muslim in order to be a citizen of Saudi Arabia. There are no public places of worship, which are allowed. We are encouraged that the government tolerates people of other faiths meeting privately¹⁰. They have stated this publicly and many, many do without harassment¹¹. But there are cases where there are instances of harassment and even arrests of non-Muslims."
Mr. Hanford said the United States is also concerned about religious hate speech in Saudi mosques¹² against non-Wahabi Muslims and followers of other religions, including Jews and Christians¹³.
The new report said the Chinese government's respect for freedom of religion remained poor, especially for unregistered religious groups, and spiritual movements such as the Falun Gong.
The Burmese government is said to have engaged in particularly severe violations of religious freedom for Muslims and Christians and the report says that efforts by Buddhist¹⁴ clergy¹⁵ to promote human rights and political freedom were systematically¹⁶ restricted.
The Iranian government is also accused of severe violations of religious freedom, with members of religious minorities including Sunni Muslims, Bahais, Jews and Christians reporting jailings, harassment, intimidation¹⁷ and discrimination based on their beliefs.
At the same time, the report credits several countries including Georgia, Turkey, Afghanistan, India and Turkmenistan for taking steps to promote greater religious tolerance¹⁸.
The report gave no assessment¹⁹ of Iraq's record over the past year because it was largely under U.S.-led occupation for that period.
But Secretary of State Colin Powell removed Iraq from the list of countries of concern in June, based on provisions of its Transitional Administrative²⁰ Law guaranteeing freedom of worship.
David Gollust, VOA news, Washington.
注释：
Saudi Arabia  沙特阿拉伯
Eritrea厄立特里亚
tangible切实的
fall short of 未达到预期（结果，目标等）
Burma 缅甸(东南亚国家)
mandate委任
bilateral relationship 双边关系
mistreatment 虐待
Shiites 什叶派教徒
Wahabi  瓦哈比教派的教徒
Sunni〈伊斯兰〉逊尼派教徒
harassment 折磨
mosque 清真寺
buddhist clergy 佛教的僧侣
Bahai巴哈派信徒
intimidation胁迫
Turkmenistan土库曼斯坦(位于中亚)
Transitional Administrative Law  (TAL)《过渡行政法》(伊拉克政府司法部2004年提出)

1 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

2 tangible   

adj.有形的，可触摸的，确凿的，实际的

参考例句：

• The policy has not yet brought any tangible benefits.这项政策还没有带来任何实质性的好处。
• There is no tangible proof.没有确凿的证据。

3 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

4 mandated   

adj. 委托统治的

参考例句：

• Mandated desegregation of public schools. 命令解除公立学校中的种族隔离
• Britain was mandated to govern the former colony of German East Africa. 英国受权代管德国在东非的前殖民地。

5 punitive   

adj.惩罚的，刑罚的

参考例句：

• They took punitive measures against the whole gang.他们对整帮人采取惩罚性措施。
• The punitive tariff was imposed to discourage tire imports from China.该惩罚性关税的征收是用以限制中国轮胎进口的措施。

6 bilateral   

adj.双方的，两边的，两侧的

参考例句：

• They have been negotiating a bilateral trade deal.他们一直在商谈一项双边贸易协定。
• There was a wide gap between the views of the two statesmen on the bilateral cooperation.对双方合作的问题，两位政治家各自所持的看法差距甚大。

7 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句

8 followers   

追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件

参考例句：

• the followers of Mahatma Gandhi 圣雄甘地的拥护者
• The reformer soon gathered a band of followers round him. 改革者很快就获得一群追随者支持他。

9 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

10 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

11 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

12 mosques   

清真寺； 伊斯兰教寺院，清真寺； 清真寺，伊斯兰教寺院( mosque的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Why make us believe that this tunnel runs underneath the mosques? 为什么要让我们相信这条隧洞是在清真寺下？
• The city's three biggest mosques, long fallen into disrepair, have been renovated. 城里最大的三座清真寺，过去年久失修，现在已经修复。

13 Christians   

n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。

14 Buddhist   

adj./n.佛教的，佛教徒

参考例句：

• The old lady fell down in adoration before Buddhist images.那老太太在佛像面前顶礼膜拜。
• In the eye of the Buddhist,every worldly affair is vain.在佛教徒的眼里，人世上一切事情都是空的。

15 clergy   

n.[总称]牧师，神职人员

参考例句：

• I could heartily wish that more of our country clergy would follow this example.我衷心希望，我国有更多的牧师效法这个榜样。
• All the local clergy attended the ceremony.当地所有的牧师出席了仪式。

16 systematically   

adv.有系统地

参考例句：

• This government has systematically run down public services since it took office.这一屆政府自上台以来系统地削减了公共服务。
• The rainforest is being systematically destroyed.雨林正被系统地毀灭。

17 intimidation   

n.恐吓，威胁

参考例句：

• The Opposition alleged voter intimidation by the army.反对党声称投票者受到军方的恐吓。
• The gang silenced witnesses by intimidation.恶帮用恐吓的手段使得证人不敢说话。

18 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。

19 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

20 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。