20 Muslim nations
ban
Yet State Department allows entry to
100s of Muslim clerics each year
Posted: August 15, 2008
2:25 am
WorldNetDaily
A new congressional study has found that more than 20 Muslim nations deny
entry to American and other foreign religious workers, WND has learned, even as
the U.S. State Department grants entry to hundreds of clerics from their
countries each year.
The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and most other Middle Eastern
countries still refuse to offer religious visas, they and deny entry to U.S.
clergy as official policy, according to a report by the Law Library of
Congress, the foreign legal research arm of the U.S. Congress. In a shocker,
"Of this group, the vast majority constitute Arab or Muslim states,"
said Wendy Zeldin, senior legal research analyst for
the Library of Congress.
"Since Islam prohibits proselytism by other religions, (We must reach
out to them by other means) foreign religious workers will in effect
be denied entry to conduct religious work," Zeldin
wrote in the three-page report, a copy of which was obtained by WND.
At the same time,
The Department of Homeland Security, in fact, considers visiting imams as
non-threatening as Buddhist monks. Screening procedures call for both visitors
to be treated as the same level of security risk at the border.
Also, R-2 visas are routinely granted to relatives of foreign imams.
By comparison, Saudi religious police recently accused more than a dozen foreign
Christians living in the kingdom of worshipping in their homes and ordered them
deported.
The deportation conflicts with the message stated just weeks earlier by
Saudi King Abdullah, who called for interfaith dialogue and held a summit in
"Deporting Christians for worshipping in their private homes shows that
King Abdullah's speech is mere rhetoric and his country is deceiving the
international community about their desire for change and reconciliation,"
International Christian Concern President Jeff King said.
King Abdullah's meetings – which drew about 200 representatives of
Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Taoism and other religions – had to be
held outside of Saudi Arabia, because, as one journalist observed, "the
mere fact that rabbis would be openly invited to the kingdom, a country where
in principle Jews are not permitted to visit, would have constituted a turning
point."
Some
"This gives us a better picture of what countries discriminate against
us based on religion," said Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., who instructed the
Congressional Research Service to compile the list (see below).
Myrick, who co-chairs of the House Anti-Terrorism/Jihad Caucus, said she is
troubled by the one-sided exchange of religious visitors, and plans to
introduce a bill to restrict R-1/R-2 religious visas for imams who come from
countries that do not allow reciprocal visits by non-Muslim clergy.
Nations not offering religious visas & denying or restricting
entry to religious workers:
I. No religious visas, entry denied to foreign religious workers:
(Blue countries
have people which log on to our website)
Jordan
Kuwait
United Arab Emirates
II. No religious visas, entry allowed, but with restrictions:
Georgia
Indonesia
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