Group cites Saudi ‘hate’ tracts

These documents advised Muslims in the United States on how to snub Jews and Christians, for example by refusing to greet them and congratulate them on religious holidays.

In addition to demonizing “nonbelievers,” documents call Muslims who practice a moderate interpretation of Islam and embrace tolerance traitors deserving of punishment, even death.

Says one document: “Those who reside in the land of unbelief out of their own choice and desire to be with the people of that land, accepting the way they are regarding their faith, or giving compliments to them, or pleasing them by pointing out something wrong with the Muslims, they become unbelievers and enemies to Allah and his messenger.”

One particularly chilling tract urges Muslims to kill any Muslims who convert to another religion.

It says of Muslims who accept Judaism or Christianity: “If you do not repent, you are an apostate and you should be killed because you have denied the Koran.”

This tract, published by the Saudi Ministry of Religious Affairs and written in Urdu, was collected at the King Fahd Mosque in Los Angeles and it quotes Sheik Bin Uthaimin as preaching this policy.

Tajuddin Shuaid, director of the King Fahd Mosque, said by telephone that his organization does not seek to promote Wahhabi Islam.

“Absolutely not,” he replied, “the center is open to Muslims of all faiths … without tolerance, Islam cannot survive.”

He said he did not know of the existence of texts in the mosque’s library such as the one quoted in the report.

Saudi Arabia, which initially refused to concede that 15 of 19 September 11 hijackers were Saudi citizens, has gradually come to recognize that militant Islam is a threat to the survival of its own royal family.

After a period of denial following the suicide attacks on the United States, the kingdom provided belated cooperation with the United States in the war on terrorism, especially after militant Islamists began bombing Saudi cities and attacking foreign oil workers.

But the underlying Wahhabi teachings that give legitimacy to the Saudi royal family remain largely unchallenged in the desert kingdom and the outside world.

In the United States, Mrs. Shea said, Saudi hate ideology has been able to escape notice because of America’s “innate respect for other people’s religions.”

“Americans aren’t comfortable attacking or criticizing other people’s religion,” she said. “But this isn’t religious dogma as much as it is political doctrine.”

In a way, Mrs. Shea said, the Saudis “have worked out an arrangement that exports the conflict within their own society. … They reflect the wrath of their own radicals by propagating some of the most extreme doctrines around the world.”

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