Friday - September 30, 2005

Oil Trumps God?

Freedom of religion in the Kingdom Of Oil? Never happen as long as you keep driving those gas-guzzling SUV’s. All we need to do is wait until they sell all the oil over there to us and then we’ll turn around and sell them water .... provided they allow the Pope to visit ....

US Waives Sanctions on Saudis Over Religious Rights
WASHINGTON (Reuters)

The United States has postponed punishing Saudi Arabia, its close ally and key oil supplier, for restricting religious freedom—the first time Washington has waived punishing a blacklisted country under a 1998 law targeting violators of religious rights. U.S. officials said on Friday the Bush administration had decided to delay imposing sanctions on Saudi Arabia for six months. The decision reflects the delicate balance the United States has sought to strike with Arab allies such as Saudi Arabia as it promotes expanding freedoms at the risk of irking governments needed to support its oil and terrorism policies.

In a rare official rebuke a year ago, Washington designated Saudi Arabia as one of only eight countries worldwide that could be sanctioned. The blacklisting in an annual report said religious freedom did not exist in the kingdom. With this year’s report due out next month, the Bush administration needed to decide on sanctioning Saudi Arabia and chose to give the kingdom a further six months to negotiate how it might improve its record. “We have not seen strong progress in the area of legal protection for religious freedom,” State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said. “(But) we welcome Saudi recognition of the need to make improvements and create a more tolerant society.”

With high oil prices affecting the U.S. economy and dragging on President George W. Bush’s popularity, Democrats have charged he has largely ignored Saudi Arabia’s rights record for fear of causing any backlash from the oil supplier. Prominent Saudis dismiss as politically motivated U.S. criticism of the country’s strict Wahhabi brand of Islam. In contrast to its decision on Saudi Arabia, the United States decided to sanction Eritrea by banning military exports to the Horn of Africa country, the officials said.

Vietnam, the third country added to the blacklist last year, has avoided sanctions after agreeing to improve its record, they added. The other countries the United States considers serious violators of religious freedom are North Korea, Myanmar, Sudan, Iran and China. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, an agency established by Congress to promote religious freedom, has recommended this year that three allies should be added to the blacklist: Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/30/2005 at 10:29 PM   
Filed Under: • Religion •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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