Religious Diversity in Saudi Arabia and the USA - Speech or Presentation Example

? 26 September Religious Diversity in Saudi Arabia vs the USA Saudi Arabia and the USA differ a lot in terms of religious diversity in a variety of ways. Both Muslims and non-Muslims find themselves in a different environment whether they move from Saudi Arabia to the USA or from the USA to Saudi Arabia. The USA is much more religiously diverse as compared to Saudi Arabia. “American religious diversity only increased over the decades that followed its formal recognition in the Constitution” (Hout and Fischer 3). Saudi Arabia is less flexible in religious matters and is less religiously diverse and has more strict laws for both the Muslims and the non-Muslims whereas the USA is the opposite of Saudi Arabia in all these ways. Saudi Arabia offers lesser freedom of religion to the residents as compared to the USA. The practice in Saudi Arabia is that all shops are closed during the times of prayers, so as to discourage the people from engaging themselves in other businesses while the call for prayer is made through Azan in the mosques. While scheduling business-related matters in Saudi Arabia, non-Muslims have to play special attention towards this matter because their Muslim partners would not be available at these particular times at least for the duration of Salat in the mosques. On the other hand, in the USA, all shops remain open irrespective of the time of prayers in any religion, be it Islam or Christianity or any other religion. Government may impose restrictions but they are for other kinds of reasons like saving power, and are not grounded in any religion. Another factor that elaborates lesser freedom of religion in Saudi Arabia than the USA is the fact that there are no churches in Saudi Arabia whereas in the USA, there are churches, mosques, synagogues, and Temples to entertain the religious needs of all of the communities that make part of the American society including the Christians, Muslims, Jews, and Hindus etc. Presently, Saudi Arabia does not have any official churches with a Christian denomination. Lack of official churches makes it very difficult for the Christians to conduct religious meetings and acts. The Christian community living in Saudi Arabia conducts private meetings for the religious affairs. The usual practice for the foreign Christians living in Saudi Arabia is that church meetings are arranged in one of the embassies. Christians can attend those meetings after registration and proving their foreign nationality. Sometimes, church meetings are also conducted at private assemblies arranged in the gyms of the schools. Many Christians conduct religious services at one another’s residences. Although Muslims make a sizeable portion of the American society, yet the Americans have many suspicions, doubts, and confusions about the religion Islam. These confusions, in part, are grounded in the fact that the way of life taught by Islam to its followers is very much different from the traditional American lifestyle. The non-Muslim Americans find a lot of restrictions in Islam upon things that make part of their everyday life of many of them. Such things include but are not limited to consuming alcohol, eating pork, socializing with the opposite gender without significant physical boundaries and physical interaction with them, the girlfriend-boyfriend culture, same sex marriages, and cohabitation. When a non-Muslim American observes that everybody but practicing Muslims consumes alcohol freely in parties, visits night-clubs, and has a girlfriend or a boyfriend, he/she thinks of the practicing Muslims as people out of this world. Some may think good of them while others may have negative perceptions about the Muslims, but one thing that is a common observation among a vast majority of the non-Muslim American community is that Muslims in general and the practicing Muslims in particular have a very different lifestyle from theirs, and the source of this difference is Islam. Apart from this observation, another factor that has played a major role in developing controversial views and perceptions about the Muslims among the non-Muslim Americans is the portrayal of Muslims in the American media. A vast majority of the terrorist attacks happening anywhere in the world are linked with Muslims, be that the 9/11 attack or a bomb blast in India. In particular, terrorists are identified with the bearded Muslims in the traditional Islamic attire in most of the cases, which inculcates negative perception about the practicing Muslims in the non-Muslim Americans. Despite all these confusions about Islam that the non-Muslim Americans have, Muslims usually find all the opportunities to practice their religion in the US. They have access to mosques at the distance of few kilometers from their homes. They can get holidays to celebrate such religious events as Eids from the workplace. Some companies make the work schedules a little flexible for the Muslims during the month of Ramadan. The Muslim women are free to cover their bodies and faces with Hijab in everyday life. In addition to that, since the USA is a democratic society and encourages freedom of speech at all levels, Muslims can also raise their concerns just like everybody else. Saudi Arabian laws and regulations have very strict punishments for everybody including Muslims. For example, someone proven for having theft gets his/her hand cut off. Likewise, the courts enforce the punishments prescribed by Islam for all kinds of societal evils including sex without marriage, gay marriage, and murder etc. Saudi Arabia does not provide the non-Muslim residents with opportunities to conduct religious meetings or practices in the official manner and the non-Muslim communities have to look for other ways to privately conduct these meetings whereas the USA is very flexible in this manner and provides equal access to the religious centers to all communities in the society. The lack of religious opportunities for the non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia has made her much less religiously diverse than the USA where people of every community have equal access to the religious opportunities. The Non-Muslim Americans find the Islamic way of life very different from the traditional American lifestyle. Frequent identification of the terrorists with the stereotypical Muslim appearance in the American media has developed negative perceptions about the Muslims in the minds of the non-Muslim Americans. Islamic laws prevail in Saudi Arabia that suggest very strict punishments for the acts of violence. Works Cited: Hout, Michael, and Fischer, Claude S. “Religious Diversity in America: 1940-2000.” University of California, Berkeley. 2000. Web. 27 Sep. 2012. . Read More