Saudi Arabian stated policy is focused on co-operation with the oil-exporting Gulf States, the unity of the Arab world, Islamic strength and solidarity, and support for the United Nations (UN). In practice, the main concerns in recent years have been relations with the US, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Iraq, the perceived threat from the Islamic Republic of Iran, the effect of oil pricing, and using its oil wealth to increase the influence of Islam. Saudi Arabia contributes large amounts of development aid to Muslim countries. From 1986 to 2006, the country donated £49 billion in aid.
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, formerly the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, is an international organization founded in 1969, consisting of 57 member states, with a collective population of over 1.8 billion as of 2015 with 49 countries being Muslim-majority countries. The organisation states that it is "the collective voice of the Muslim world" and works to "safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony".
Islamophobia is the fear of, hatred of, or prejudice against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general, especially when seen as a geopolitical force or the source of terrorism.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an Islamic absolute monarchy in which Sunni Islam is the official state religion based on firm Sharia law. Non-Muslims must practice their religion in private and are vulnerable to discrimination and deportation. It has been stated that no law requires all citizens to be Muslim, but also that non-Muslims are not allowed to have (gain?) Saudi citizenship. Children born to Muslim fathers are by law deemed Muslim, and conversion from Islam to another religion is considered apostasy and punishable by death. Blasphemy against Sunni Islam is also punishable by death, but the more common penalty is a long prison sentence. According to the U.S. Department of State's 2013 Report on International Religious Freedom, there have been 'no confirmed reports of executions for either apostasy or blasphemy' between 1913 and 2013.
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is a country in Western Asia constituting the vast majority of the Arabian Peninsula. With a land area of approximately 2,150,000 km2 (830,000 sq mi), Saudi Arabia is geographically the largest sovereign state in Western Asia, the second-largest in the Arab world, the fifth-largest in Asia, and the 12th-largest in the world. Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast and Yemen to the south; it is separated from Egypt and Israel in the north-west by the Gulf of Aqaba. Saudi Arabia is the only country with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast, and most of its terrain consists of arid desert, lowland, steppe and mountains. As of October 2018, the Saudi economy was the largest in the Middle East and the 18th largest in the world. Saudi Arabia also has one of the world's youngest populations, with approximately 50 percent of its population of 34.2 million being under 25 years old.
The World Assembly of Muslim Youth is an international Islamic educational organization whose stated purpose is “preserve the identity of Muslim youth and help overcome the problems they face in modern society”. Reportedly the world's largest Muslim organization, WAMY organizes conferences, symposia, educational workshops and research circles to address youth and students issues, in addition to football tournaments and European Muslim Scouts camps for Muslim youth in Europe. Along with the Muslim World League, it is part of a "worldwide network of largely Saudi-funded groups...promoting Islamic teachings and encouraging Muslims to be more religiously observant, as well as providing interested non-Muslims and recent converts with information about Islam". It maintains satellite chapters in 31 other countries and is affiliated with some 196 other Muslim youth groups on five continents.
Jihad Watch is a far-right anti-Muslim conspiracy blog operated by Robert B. Spencer. It is affiliated with the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
Roman Catholicism in Saudi Arabia is officially barred from being practised, though Catholics are allowed into the country for temporary work. There is a large expatriate Filipino community in Saudi Arabia, many of whom are thought to be Catholics. There are no dioceses in Saudi Arabia, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia.
Rafed Network for Cultural Development is behind Rafed.net & Rafed.com, one of the most popular Shi'a websites.
Aljazeera Publishing was formed in 1992 in London to produce content for expatriate Persian Gulf residents living in the United Kingdom. Aljazeera Publishing was disbanded in April 2011 after the sale of its main assets to regional media organizations including Al Jazeera Media Network, Noor Media and MBC.
Multiple forms of media including books, newspapers, magazines, films, television, and content published on the Internet are censored in Saudi Arabia.
Accurate religious demographics are difficult to obtain in Saudi Arabia but while all citizens are considered Muslims by the state, it is believed that there are approximately 1.8 million Christians in Saudi Arabia.
It is estimated that in the Middle East over 900,000 people profess Buddhism as their religion. Buddhist adherents make up just over 0.3% of the total population of the Middle East. Many of these Buddhists are workers who have migrated from Asia to the Middle East since the late 1990s, many from countries that have large Buddhist populations, such as China, Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. A small number of engineers, company directors, and managers from Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea have also moved to the Middle East.
Ali Sina is the pseudonym of an anonymous Iranian-born Canadian activist and atheist critic of Islam, who was raised Muslim.
Islam is the country religion of Saudi Arabia. No law requires residents to be Muslim, however, public worship by adherents of religions other than Islam is forbidden. Any non-Muslim attempting to acquire Saudi Arabian nationality must convert to Islam. Furthermore, Salafism is the official version of Sunni Islam and adherence to other strands even within Sunnism is restricted. Saudi Arabia has been criticized for its implementation of Islamic law and its human rights record. According to a 2012 online poll by WIN-Gallup International, 5% of 502 Saudi Arabians surveyed stated they were "convinced atheists".
Saudi Americans are Americans of total or partial Saudi descent. According to the census of 2000, 7,419 people of Saudi origin were living in the United States. In 2015, according to the American Community Survey, 96,783 Saudi-born people were living in United States. Saudi Arabia and the United States have had important political relations since the 1940s. Population estimates are seen to have a very small diaspora, mainly because Saudi Arabia provides them with more than adequate welfare benefits, removing the need to live and work in other developed countries.
Irreligion in Saudi Arabia is difficult to measure as it is illegal to leave the Islamic faith in the country. Most atheists in Saudi Arabia communicate with each other via the internet.
WikiIslam is a "community-edited" wiki that has been described by scholars and writers as Islamophobic, anti-Muslim, and anti-Islam. The wiki's mission statement is "to provide accurate and accessible information from traditional and critical perspectives on the beliefs, practices, and development of Islam."
Following the embargo by Arab oil exporters during the Israeli-Arab October 1973 War, and the vast increase in petroleum export revenue that followed, conservative/strict/puritanical interpretations of Sunni Islam favored by the conservative oil-exporting Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, achieved a "preeminent position of strength in the global expression of Islam." The interpretations included not only "Wahhabi" Islam of Saudi Arabia, but Islamist/revivalist Islam, and a "hybrid" of the two interpretations.
Ali Amjad Rizvi is a Pakistani-born Canadian ex-Muslim atheist and secular humanist writer and podcaster who explores the challenges of Muslims who leave their faith. He writes a column for the Huffington Post and co-hosts the Secular Jihadists for a Muslim Enlightenment podcast together with Armin Navabi.
