Its institutionalised oppression was highlighted this week by the case of Peter Howarth Lees, a British businessman who was shopping in Riyadh with his Saudi born wife when he was suddenly assaulted by thugs from the religious police for the supposed crime of going through a women only cash register in a supermarket.
But that is nothing unusual in this medieval theocracy where the dogma of Wahhabism holds sway. This is a land that since August 4 has carried out 19 judicial beheadings. Earlier this year five Saudi men were sentenced to 32 years in prison and 4,500 lashes for holding a Valentine’s Day party.
What is particularly disturbing for us in Britain is how these two nations have helped the spread of jihadism. Both Saudi Arabia and Qatar have undoubtedly given arms and cash to the Islamist forces in Syria from which Islamic State has emerged.
One recent estimate is that Qatar has spent £2billion in Syria to build up influence among anti Assad rebels and also given £125million to Hamas, the rulers of Gaza, and support to the now banned Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
It is the same story with Saudi Arabia which has not only fed the Islamist monster in Syria but helped the extremist cause by its subsidies for Wahhabist propaganda worldwide.
One study concluded that 15 to 20 per cent of this funding ended up being diverted to the Al Qaeda terror network and other jihadists. We should remember that Osama Bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia.
Islamic indoctrination has also reached our shores, due in part to the influence of Saudi Arabia and Qatar which pro vide huge amounts of funding for mosques, Islamic centres and schools.
The Emir of Qatar, for instance, recently donated £1.5million for the construction of a five storey mosque in Blackburn.
Tragically for our national future, however, the spirit of intolerance and separatism prevails in all too many of these initiatives.
Material published and distributed in Britain’s mosques by agencies linked to Saudi Arabia features demands for the stoning of adulterers, homosexuals and apostates, hardly a surprise given their source.
Any sane, moral government would ensure such malignancy had no place in Britain. But sadly we are governed by a bunch of cowards without morality, consistency or patriotism. So our citizens are left without protection.
