Senate Will Probe Saudi Distribution Of Hate Materials
BY MEGHAN CLYNE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
October 5, 2005
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/20998

WASHINGTON - The American government is demanding that Saudi Arabia
account for its distribution of hate material to American mosques, as
the State Department pressed Saudi officials for answers last week and
as the Senate later this month plans to investigate the propagation of
radical Wahhabism on American shores.

Senate Will Probe Saudi Distribution Of Hate Materials
BY MEGHAN CLYNE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
October 5, 2005
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/20998

WASHINGTON - The American government is demanding that Saudi
Arabia account for its distribution of hate material to
American mosques, as the State Department pressed Saudi
officials for answers last week and as the Senate later this
month plans to investigate the propagation of radical Wahhabism
on American shores.

The flurry of activity comes months after a report from the
Center for Religious Freedom discovered that dozens of mosques
in major cities across the country, including New York,
Washington, and Los Angeles, were distributing documents,
bearing the seal of the government of Saudi Arabia, that incite
Muslims to acts of violence and promote hatred of Jews and
Christians.

A Washington-based group that is part of the human rights
organization Freedom House, the Center for Religious Freedom
also found during its yearlong study that the Saudi-produced
materials describe democracy and America as un-Islamic. They
instruct recent Muslim immigrants to consider Americans as
enemies and the materials urge new arrivals to use their time
here as preparation for jihad. The documents also promote the
version of Islam officially embraced by Saudi government and
several of the September 11, 2001, hijackers, Wahhabism, as the
only authentic Islam.

In response to the Freedom House report and as part of the
Saudi Arabia Accountability Act of 2005 sponsored by Senator
Specter, a Republican of Pennsylvania, the Judiciary Committee
- of which Senator Specter is chairman - will be holding
hearings into the hate materials on October 25, a spokesman for
the senator, William Reynolds, said yesterday.

The Accountability Act, introduced in June, says its purpose is
"to halt Saudi support for institutions that fund, train,
incite, encourage, or in any other way aid and abet terrorism,
and to secure fully Saudi cooperation in the investigation of
terrorist incidents." The legislation is highly critical of the
House of Saud for its support of terrorist activity and cites
the January Freedom House report as evidence of the kingdom's
complicity in the spread of radical Islamist ideology. As part
of the

Accountability Act, Senator Specter has in the past held
Judiciary Committee hearings into Saudi financing of terrorism
and Saudi Arabia's role in injecting ideology into textbooks
for Palestinian Arab schoolchildren.

Many of the details of the Judiciary Committee hearing later
this month, Mr. Reynolds said, are still being arranged,
including a final witness list. In the meantime, the committee
expects testimony from the State Department, the Federal Bureau
of Investigation, Freedom House, and terrorism experts. The
committee will press to determine whether the Saudi government
has taken steps to stop the distribution of the materials, and
will cull from witnesses recommendations to prevent their
future dissemination, Mr. Reynolds said.

Also demanding answers about the hate materials is the State
Department's undersecretary for public diplomacy and public
affairs, Karen Hughes. During a high-profile trip to the Middle
East last week, Ms. Hughes said American representatives had
addressed the propagation of Saudi hate material in America
during private meetings with government officials.

In a State Department briefing held en route to Ankara, Turkey,
from Saudi Arabia last Tuesday, Ms. Hughes was asked why she
had raised the issue that day during a public meeting with
Saudi journalists, becoming the first American official to do
so publicly. "We had been raising the issue privately," Ms.
Hughes said, "and as part of raising difficult issues that we
need to discuss, I felt it was appropriate." The undersecretary
did not elaborate on the results of the private meetings, but
the degree to which Saudi Arabia is making efforts to stop the
propaganda will be a subject of the Senate hearings, Mr.
Reynolds said.

Requests for comment from the Embassy of Saudi Arabia yesterday
were not returned.