A Stitch in Haste

A Stitch in Haste recommends the following report from the Congressional Research Service:

Saudi Arabia: Current Issues and U.S. Relations
An excerpt:

Of particular concern to Westerners are pervasive restrictions on women’s activities and an injunction against the practice of other religions throughout the Kingdom. This injunction has been applied not only against non-Islamic faiths but also at times against the Shi'ite Muslim community in Saudi Arabia, estimated at 500,000 or more persons mainly in the Eastern Province. Since 1990, the Saudi government has moved quietly to ease some restrictions on Shi’ites. A petition presented by Saudi Shi'ite representatives was followed by an audience with then Crown Prince Abdullah on April 30, 2003, indicating that both the government and the Shi’ite petitioners may be seeking to pursue a more cooperative approach. Discrimination against the mystic-oriented Sufi sects, long opposed by the Saudi regime, has reportedly eased in the last few years.

So a subset of Saudi males now get to vote for the town dog catcher — big deal. As I pointed out during the UAE port scandal, being "a trusted ally in the war on terror" — and being awash in oil — should only get you so far with us. We are making the same mistakes we made during the Cold War and myopically embracing crackpots and dictators that we arguably should not even have diplomatic relations with. We should have higher standards.

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Need a concrete example? Here's one: Now the Saudi goat herders are only 314 years behind Salem and the rest of civilization:

Saudi Arabia's powerful morality police is launching a witch hunt in the birthplace of Islam.

The Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is setting up special centers in all cities to "register complaints on sorcerers and charlatans, track them and terminate them," the authority's chief Sheikh Ibrahim bin Abdallah al-Ghaith told al-Madinah newspaper.

Islam forbids magic and practicing it is considered blasphemy.
...
The religious police have wide powers in Saudi Arabia, which imposes a strict version of Sunni Islam, to prevent the spread of drugs, alcohol and prostitution as well as stop unrelated men and women mixing in public.

Don't forget executing gays.

As I said: We should have higher standards, oil and "trusted ally" be damned.

Previous CRS Recommendations:
The National Debt
Restricting Video Game Sales to Minors
Warrantless Wiretapping
Foreign Holdings of Public Debt
China's Internet Censorship
Summary of Rumsfeld v. FAIR