Across Pacific & Asia


Friday, February 18, 2005

SAUDI GOVERNMENT FILLS
AMERICAN MOSQUES WITH HATE LITERATURE

'Duty to hate Christians and Jews'

By Mark Ellis


WASHINGTON, D.C. (ANS) -- The Saudi government has filled American mosques with hate propaganda, according to a year-long study of over 200 books and pamphlets found in mosques throughout the United States.

“The version of Islam the Saudis have been propagating is of a kind that can lead to terrorism,” says Dr. Paul Marshall, a Senior Fellow at Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom, which conducted the study. (Pictured: Parl Marshall).

The 89-page report, “Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Fill American Mosques,” is based on a study of original documents disseminated by the government of Saudi Arabia. Some of the documents bear the words “Greetings from the Cultural Attache in Washington D.C.” of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia.

Among the key findings of the report:

--Various publications assert it is a religious duty for Muslims to hate Christians and Jews and warn against befriending or helping them in any way, or taking part in their festivities and celebrations.

--The documents promote contempt for the U.S. because it is ruled by legislated civil law rather than totalitarian Wahhabi-style Islamic law. They condemn democracy as un-Islamic.

--The publications stress that when Muslims are in the lands of unbelievers, they must behave as if on a mission behind enemy lines. Either they should acquire knowledge and make money to be used in the jihad against infidels, or proselytize until some convert to Islam.

--Muslims who advocate tolerance are condemned as infidels. Sufi and Shiite Muslims are viciously condemned. Those who convert out of Islam, the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs explicitly states, “should be killed.”

--Saudi textbooks and other publications propagate a Nazi-like hatred for Jews, treat the forged “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” as historical fact, and proclaim the Muslim’s duty to eliminate the state of Israel.

“This study was at the request of American Muslims who were very worried about this sort of material in their own mosques,” Dr. Marshall notes. “They said: ‘We think this needs to be exposed.’” The publications were collected in December 2003 from more than a dozen mosques in Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, and other cities throughout the U.S. Two independent translators reviewed each Arabic document. The same mosques were rechecked in December 2004, and the same materials were still available.

The Center for Religious Freedom didn’t study the content of all the printed material available in the mosques. “I don’t claim this is the dominant literature,” Dr. Marshall notes. “But this is not just an occasional pamphlet tucked away on a back shelf.”

The report concludes that the Saudi government propaganda reflects “a totalitarian ideology of hatred that can incite to violence,” and the fact that it is “being mainstreamed within our borders through the efforts of a foreign government, namely Saudi Arabia, demands our urgent attention.” The report finds: “Not only does the government of Saudi Arabia not have a right – under the First Amendment or any other legal document – to spread hate ideology within U.S. borders, it is committing a human rights violation by doing so.”

Dr. Marshall is concerned about Saudi influence in Washington. “Saudi Arabia can control the price of oil and that puts us to some degree at their mercy,” Dr. Marshall notes. “They could probably produce a recession in the U.S. and every administration thinks about this,” he says. “I do worry about the degree to which the Saudis influence policy in Washington. They spread a lot of money around.”

“The ambassador, Prince Bandar, has been a close friend with a lot of U.S. administrations,” he adds, “in the sense of inviting people around to dinner and playing squash with someone like Colin Powell. This is not just diplomatic politeness. It seems to be more than that.”

Dr. Marshall is the author and editor of 18 books and booklets on religion and politics. His latest book: “Radical Islam’s Rules – The Worldwide Spread of Extreme Shari’a Law” (Roman & Littlefield) will appear next month.

He remains cautiously hopeful about U.S. prospects in Iraq. “There is no guaranteed outcome,” Dr. Marshall notes. “You had an amazing turnout in the election by people facing death,” he says. “Now they’ve done something for themselves.” Dr. Marshall expects increased tension between the new government in Iraq and the U.S. “Americans will need to be humble,” he adds.

Dr. Marshall agrees that President Bush’s dream of bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East will be the work of generations. “I was more doubtful a couple years ago,” he admits. After watching the Iraqi elections, and the courage displayed by citizens given the opportunity to vote, his feelings changed. “This is deeper in the human soul than I thought,” he says.

Mark Ellis is a Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service. He is also an assistant pastor in Laguna Beach, CA. Contact Ellis at marsalis@fea.net



ASSIST News Service (ANS) - www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com





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