One of the chief exporters of radical fundamentalist Islam has made it quite clear that religious freedom is not an option in within its borders.

A Saudi Arabian official says mosques can be the only places of worship in his country, rejecting pressure to change heavy restrictions on religious besides Islam.

Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites, implements a strict version of Islamic law.

It told a United Nations meeting that the kingdom allows other religions in private.

But the vice president of the Saudi human rights commission said Friday that establishing houses of worship for non-Islamic religions was too sensitive an issue.

Zaid Al-Hussain tells the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva that there could be no debate. Other countries have urged Saudi Arabia to abolish laws that breach basic human rights such as freedom from discrimination on the basis of religion or belief.

I guess we should not be too surprised. After all, Saudi Arabia has a piss-poor record on human rights in general – why should anyone expect it to suddenly go against one of the fundamental tenets of the faith that is at the root of that hostility to human rights? After all, Saudi Arabia is also one of those nations seeking to use the UN to curtail freedom of speech internationally when it is used to speak negatively about Islam, seeking to move the world forward into the seventh-century Hijaz.

Posted by: Greg at 12:31 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment
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