SAUDI ARABIA
Legal framework on freedom of religion and actual application
Since coming to the throne in 2015, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has served as both Saudi Arabia’s head of State and head of government. On 27 September 2022, he appointed his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as Prime Minister.[1] Under the 1992 Basic Law of Governance, the king, who is an absolute ruler, must follow Shari‘a (Islamic law).[2] The kingdom’s constitution is “The Holy Qur‘an and the Prophet’s Sunnah (traditions)”.[3]
Under the late King Abdullah (2005-2015), the country experienced gradual modernisation.[4] With 17 percent of the world’s known oil reserves in 2024,[5] the kingdom is one of the wealthiest in the region and a leading political and religious power in the Arab and Islamic worlds.
In 2016, the Saudi government adopted ambitious plans for economic reform – Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Program – to reduce dependence on oil revenues.[6]
The current Saudi population is around 33.6 million. In 2022, approximately 41.6 percent of the country’s residents were foreigners.[7] Sunni Muslims represent between 85 and 90 percent of the population, while Shi‘a Muslims constitute between 10 and 12 percent (with an estimated 25 to 30 percent in the oil-rich Eastern Province).[8]
An unofficial census by the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia estimates that Saudi Arabia’s Catholics number more than 1.5 million, consisting mainly of foreign workers from India and the Philippines. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not have official diplomatic ties with the Holy See.[9]
Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam and home to its two holiest cities – Makkah and Madinah – with the Saudi king serving as the official Custodian of Islam’s two holiest mosques. The application of the law is based on the Hanbali school of Islamic jurisprudence, and the legal interpretations of the eighteenth-century scholar Muhammed ibn Abd al-Wahhab, upon whose teachings Wahhabism is based, are also highly influential. The strict Wahhabi interpretation of Sunni Islam includes restrictions on women and harsh penalties for a range of crimes, including capital punishment.[10]
Saudi citizens must be Muslims, and non-Muslims must convert to Islam to be eligible for naturalisation. Children born to Muslim fathers are deemed to be Muslim. The public promotion of non-Islamic teachings is prohibited.[11]
Religious freedom is neither recognised nor protected. Conversion from Islam to another religion is considered apostasy, which is legally punishable by death, as is blasphemy against Islam. More recently, Saudi courts have tended to be lenient, imposing lengthy prison sentences for blasphemy instead of the death penalty.[12]
Following a Supreme Court ruling in 2020, the government replaced flogging as a ta’zir (discretionary) criminal punishment with imprisonment or fines.[13] As a result, persons found guilty of blasphemy, public immodesty and a number of other offences are no longer subject to flogging. However, according to judicial representatives, flogging may still be a part of sentences for certain Ḥadd (plural Hudud) offences, which include drinking, engaging in sexual activity outside of marriage, and making false accusations of adultery.[14]
Non-Muslim places of worship and the public expression of non-Muslim creeds are prohibited. Failure to comply can mean discrimination, harassment and detention, and non-citizens may be deported. Despite government statements that non-Muslims who are not converts from Islam may practise their religion privately, the lack of clear rules has left non-Muslims at the mercy of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CPVPV), also known as the Mutawa or the religious police.[15]
Religious instruction based on the official interpretation of Islam is mandatory in state schools. Private schools cannot teach a separate curriculum and are required to offer both Saudi and non-Saudi Muslim pupils an Islamic studies program. Non-Muslim students in private schools may receive a course in Islamic civilisation. Other religions or civilisations may be taught at private international schools.[16]
In court cases, defendants must be treated equally in accordance with Shari‘a. There is no comprehensive written penal code, and rulings and sentences vary widely from case to case. Under the 2021 Evidence Act,[17] gender and religion are no longer treated as criteria to determine the value of legal evidence before a court of law. Previously, judges favoured the testimony of Muslims, and courts sometimes considered the testimony of a woman equal to half that of a man.[18]
A 2017 counterterrorism law criminalises “anyone who challenges, either directly or indirectly, the religion or justice of the King or Crown Prince”. The promotion of atheistic ideologies in any form, any attempt to “cast doubt on the fundamentals of Islam,” publications that “contradict the provisions of Islamic law,” non-Islamic public worship, the public display of non-Islamic religious symbols, conversion by a Muslim to another religion, and proselytising by a non-Muslim are also criminal offences.[19]
Despite government policy against non-Muslim burial in the country, at least one public, non-Islamic cemetery exists in Jeddah.[20]
Human rights standards are observed “in light of the provisions of Shari‘a”,[21] and Saudi Arabia is not a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).[22] This means that human rights, as defined by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNUDHR), are neither recognised nor protected.
The Mutawa continues to monitor public behaviour and morals,[23] but must report to the regular police to enforce the strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islamic norms. Its officers have to carry official identification papers, and their powers have been significantly limited by royal decree.[24] As a result, less harassment and fewer raids have been reported.[25]
In 2022, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced an initiative to rigorously document the Prophet’s most authentic Hadith to prevent their exploitation by extremists. The project establishes a three-tier classification: mutawatir Hadith (approximately 100) are to be strictly observed, ahad Hadith require critical evaluation, while weaker khabar Hadith should generally be disregarded unless deemed to serve the public interest.[26]
In March 2024, Amnesty International reported that Saudi Arabia’s draft penal code, leaked in July 2022, was prepared without public consultation or transparency. According to the international NGO, the draft significantly deviates from international human rights standards, reinforcing restrictions on freedoms of expression, religion, and assembly. Particularly alarming are provisions that codify the death penalty, including for minors, and continue to allow certain forms of corporal punishment such as flogging. Amnesty warns that, if adopted, the code would institutionalise human rights abuses; for this reason, it urged Saudi authorities to amend it in line with international norms.[27]
Incidents and developments
In January 2023, Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church celebrated its first Mass in Saudi Arabia. The Metropolitan of Shoubra El-Kheima, Bishop Marcos, paid a month-long visit to Egyptian Copts residing in Saudi Arabia that ended with the Divine Liturgy on Christmas Eve. The bishop visited several cities including Riyadh and Jeddah as well as the eastern region where many Copts and Eritreans were also able to attend Masses, thanks to the support of Saudi authorities.[28]
Also in January 2023, Saudi forces raided homes in the oil-rich, Shi‘a-majority Eastern Province, detaining ten young men. According to the Shia Waves news agency, Saudi authorities have stepped up “politically motivated arrests”, prosecuting and convicting “peaceful dissident writers and human rights campaigners”.[29]
In February 2023, four Shi‘a Saudi nationals were sentenced to death for allegedly protesting in al-Awamiyah against “government discrimination against the community”.[30] The men were accused of supporting terrorism by the Specialised Criminal Court. According to the Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR), although the Public Prosecution “did not request a death penalty” and had only demanded “a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison”, the Specialized Criminal Court sentenced them to death.[31] ESOHR cautioned that this was a dangerous precedent.
In February 2023, Seyyed Nazir Abbas Taqvi, Secretary General of Pakistan’s Shi‘a Ulema Council, was arrested for carrying a flag with the name of Ali, the first Shi‘a Imam (Ali ibn Abi Talib), while performing his pilgrimage in Makkah.[32]
In February 2023, the Secretary-General of the Muslim World League, Mohammed bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, met in Riyadh with Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna, who arrived with his delegation in Saudi Arabia at the League’s invitation.[33] In December 2024, Mohammed bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa met with Pope Francis in Rome.[34]
In March 2023, a Saudi cleric who feared detention fled the kingdom after “criticising the Saudi government’s radical reforms in the entertainment sphere”. On the platform X, Emad Al-Moubayed, a former imam at the King Abdulaziz Mosque in Dammam, “called on the authorities to fear God” in implementing social changes which are “erasing the Islamic faith and replacing the identity of Islam with other identities”.[35]
In March 2023, a court sentenced Mariam al-Qisoom to 25 years in prison and imposed on her a 25-year travel ban for her human and civil rights work on behalf of Saudi Arabia’s Shi‘a minority.[36]
In April 2023, a court issued a 20-year prison sentence against a Shi‘a preacher, Sheikh Fathi al-Janoubi, who had been arrested in October 2021. Shia Waves reported that authorities “targeted Shia religious scholars, arrested them and issued long prison sentences or death sentences against them”.[37]
In May 2023, three American Shi‘a pilgrims were detained in Madinah for wearing T-shirts bearing the name of the second Shi‘a imam, Hassan al-Mujtaba, while visiting the al-Baqi cemetery that was destroyed by Wahabis a century ago. The men were released after 12 days.[38]
In May 2023, the Israeli-based Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-SE) presented findings showing that almost all previously identified negative comments about Jews and Christians in Islamic Studies textbooks had been removed. According to the institute’s report, new content criticised radical religious ideologies and extremist groups. The latter include Hezbollah, Islamic State, al-Qaeda, and Houthi militias, as well as atheism. The Muslim Brotherhood was singled out as “an incendiary terrorist organization”.[39]
In June 2023, female Shi‘a pilgrims were no longer able to view the burial place of some of the most venerated first Shi‘a imams because the authorities had built a wall around it. Previously they had been able view it through a fence.[40] However, in July 2023, unlike previous years, the authorities allowed male Shi‘a Muslims to commemorate the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein in al-Baqi cemetery.[41]
In July 2023, the Specialised Criminal Court (SCC) sentenced a Sunni Muslim man, Mohammed al-Ghamdi, to death for “describing the King or the Crown Prince in a way that undermines religion or justice” and for other crimes under the Counterterrorism Law. First imprisoned in 2022 for publicly advocating the release of religious prisoners, in September 2024, the SCC formally overturned the death sentence against him and instead sentenced him to 30 years in prison.[42]
In July 2023, the Geneva-based advocacy NGO, MENA Rights Group, said in a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council for the 2023 Universal Periodic Review of Saudi Arabia, that “members of the Shiite community are at an increased risk of facing the death penalty in Saudi Arabia. They are often convicted in mass trials and sentenced to death on the basis of vague offences that frequently violate their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.”[43]
In August 2023, the cabinet approved the establishment of an independent body, the Presidency of Religious Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque, to supervise the two holy sites in Makkah and Madinah. It will oversee the imams and muezzins of the two mosques and manage all aspects of religious operations, including the organisation of seminars and the dissemination of Islamic teachings.[44]
In September 2023, the General Authority of Media Regulation summoned a young Saudi woman for sharing posts allegedly insulting the Prophet Mohammed and his wife Khadija. The social media activist was referred to the Public Prosecution for further legal action, with a potential five-year jail term and a fine of three million Saudi riyals (US$ 800,000).[45]
In October 2023, a visiting Israeli delegation was permitted to celebrate the Jewish Holiday of Sukkot in a hotel in Riyadh.[46]
In November 2023, the cabinet approved the use of the Gregorian calendar for all official dealings, except for those related to Shari‘a, which will continue follow the Hijri calendar.[47]
In January 2024, football fans were detained for singing chants that commemorated the birth of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first Shi‘a imam. The maximum sentence is five years in prison.[48]
On 20 February 2024, the Patriarch of Baghdad of the Chaldeans, Cardinal Louis Raphaël I Sako, participated in a forum in Riyadh on the role of the media in interreligious dialogue. The patriarch called it a “surprising experience” because he discovered the country to be a place of openness and encounter with which, he said, “the Holy See must open a serious dialogue”.[49]
In March 2024, the Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Rabbi Abraham Cooper, was asked to remove his kippah (a skullcap traditionally worn by Jewish men) while visiting the the Diriyah UNESCO World Heritage Site, and anytime in public while visiting Saudi Arabia. When he declined the request, Saudi officials required the USCIRF delegation and US embassy officials to leave the site.[50] The USCIRF delegation ended early their official visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. USCIRF Vice Chair Davie stated: “Saudi officials’ request for Chair Cooper to remove his kippah was stunning and painful. It directly contradicted not only the government’s official narrative of change but also genuine signs of greater religious freedom in the Kingdom that we observed firsthand”.[51]
In May 2024, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) criticised Saudi Arabia for the arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment of the religious scholar Safar bin Abdulrahman al-Hawali, and for holding him in solitary confinement without trial and the necessary accommodations for his disability. According to his nephew, he was arrested in 2018 for criticising the Crown Prince.[52]
In September 2024, the Vatican Apostolic Library announced its participation in the upcoming Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah in 2025, when it will showcase several pieces from its collections.[53]
In November 2024, the 89-year-old Syrian Islamic scholar Saleh Al-Shami was released, having been detained in January 2023 without any formal charges.[54]
In January 2025, Mohammed Bu Jbara, a Shi‘a religious reciter from Al-Ahsa, was arrested for performing a religious poem.[55]
In January 2025, the European Saudi Organisation for Human Right (ESOHR) reported that, in 2024, execution numbers broke previous records and charges expanded in an unprecedented manner.[56] The figures had doubled compared to 2023. According to official statistics, from 2015 until the end of 2024, Saudi Arabia executed 1,585 individuals, of which 345 (or 22 percent) died in 2024 alone - an average of one execution every 25 hours. The 2024 figures reflect a 100% increase compared to 2023, which saw 172 executions.[57]
In February 2025, five young Shi‘a citizens and one Shi‘a businessman were sentenced to death for sectarian reasons.[58] The five were all minors when they participated in peaceful demonstrations in al-Qatif, in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, in 2011 and 2012. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the UN Human Rights Council described the verdict as arbitrary.[59] A human rights officer at the MENA Rights Group stated: “Together the cases are the first time where the UN has given a statement that there is systemic discrimination against Shi‘as within the framework of the death penalty.[60]
Prospects for freedom of religion
Despite laudable developments, for example the IMPACT-SE findings revealing that almost all negative comments about Jews and Christians in Islamic Studies textbooks had been removed, and clear efforts by the Saudi government to project a more open image — such as inviting Christian and Jewish leaders to participate in interreligious dialogue — the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia continues to lack freedom of religion and freedom of worship.
This is reflected, among other concerns, by the MENA Rights Group report to the UNHRC wherein “members of the Shiite community are at an increased risk of facing the death penalty in Saudi Arabia”, and the March 2024 Amnesty International report which revealed that the draft Saudi penal code continues to provide for the death penalty for blasphemy and apostasy from Islam.[61] Prospects for religious freedom in Saudi Arabia remain unchanged.
Sources
Saudi Arabia