Will we finally see some anti-dhimmitude regarding the Saudis? I wouldn't bet on it. Nicholas Kralev in the Washington Times discusses the issue of religious freedom in countries "of concern":
The Bush administration said yesterday it is close to reaching agreements with Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Eritrea that would improve the state of religious freedom in the three countries of "particular concern" for Washington.
The administration asked Congress, which can impose sanctions on the violators under the International Religious Freedom Act, to extend yesterday's deadline for the three governments to demonstrate commitment to becoming more tolerant toward various religions.
"We've been actively engaged with all three in working for improvements in respect for religious freedom in those countries. We've made some important progress," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters....
Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Eritrea were included on the list of "countries of particular concern" for the first time, joining Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Burma and China. They had six months, which expired yesterday, to at least begin reversing the negative trend....
What? No Pakistan? And what about Egypt? Sudan? Jordan?
North Korea and Turkmenistan (only Sunni Islam and Eastern Orthodoxy and the dictator's own cult of personality legal) seem absent from the list, too. Pacts of this kind can be made only with those willing to parley.
Memo to Congress on Exporting the First Amendment -- Free Exercise Clause
It would be too much, of course, to attempt to export the Establishment Clause. England has its Anglican Church, Russia its recognized religions with special status for the Russian Orthodox Church, Italy has a special relation with Catholicism and Israel with Judaism, and Burma with Buddhism, and so on.
But it is not out of the question to force countries to recognize that the "free exercise" of religion -- or of non-religion -- should be a matter of interest. The United States has the political and economic power to push the chief offenders on the right path.
Congress should insist that The United States will not offer economic, or any other kind of aid, to those countries that refuse to endorse the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and not only to endorse, but to put into practice its requirements as to protecting individual freedom of conscience. That means the full right of anyone to leave one religion for another or for no religion at all. It means having equality in the country's legal system for people of every or no faith. Those countries that insist on the full force of the Sharia, such as Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran, or nearly so, as Pakistan, or model parts of their civil code on the Sharia, will be cut off from all foreign aid, and other sanctions will follow.
That's a reasonable start to helping those who, through no fault of their own, were born into countries where Islam rules and non-Muslims subjugated or prevented from obtaining citizenship (as in Saudi Arabia).
The Establishment Clause may be limited in its application. But the Free Exercise clause could be, and should be, the most important sociopolitical American export.
Others accuse the American government of "meddling" in the affairs of others. The American government has not meddled enough, or not meddled in the right way. So let us be busybodies, not by exporting, necessarily, our economic arrangements to Iraq, but rather, the best features of our political inheritance -- all that stuff that Madison and Jefferson so thoughtfully provided.
Yes, let Americans, and other Westerners, be polypragmones, and proud of it.
Interesting they should mention Eritrea here. Eritrea is of course the fruits of the ongoing jihad against Ethiopia called by Imam Ahmed Ibrahim in the sixteenth century. The jihad against Ethiopia will continue its slow low-key advance, ignored by the West and the rich nations of the world until one the most unique and ancient of the original Christian countries falls to Islam.