Islam is thestate religion ofSaudi Arabia.^[1] As the "home of Islam" where theprophet of Islam lived and carried out his mission,^[2] the kingdom attracts millions of MuslimHajj pilgrims annually, and thousands of clerics and students who come from across theMuslim world to study.^[3] Approximately 100% of its citizens are Muslim^[4] and most of its largepopulation of foreign workers are as well.^[5]Hanbali is the official version ofSunni Islam and it is used in thelegal andeducation systems.^[6][1] TheBasic Law of Saudi Arabia states that it is the duty of every citizen to defend Islam.^[1]

Religion in Saudi Arabia has had a reach beyond its borders as since the 1970s the Saudi government has spent tens of billions of dollars of its petroleum export revenue throughout the Islamic world and elsewherepromoting Islam and specifically the strict revivalist Salafi school based on theteachings ofMuhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. However in 2017,Crown PrinceMohammed bin Salman, eliminated many ofWahhabi restrictions (bans on amusement parks, cinemas, driving of motor vehicles by women, etc.),^[7] though not government controls on religious expression.^[8]

The government placesrestrictions on religious freedom.^{[9][10][11][12][13]} Foreigners attempting to acquire Saudi Arabian nationality must either already be Muslim or convert to Islam.^[14] Proselytizing/promotion of any non-Islamic religion is forbidden per a 2022 law.^[1]

Islam, specificallySunni Islam of theHanbali school, is the state religion in Saudi Arabia.^[6] According to official statistics, in 2022 90% of Saudi Arabia's 15 to 20 million citizens^[18] were Sunni Muslims,^[19] 10-12% areShia,^[4] many TwelverShia populating the eastern regions andZaydi Shia in the south of the country.^[20] More than 30% of the population was made up of foreign workers^[4] who are predominantly but not entirely Muslim.^[5]

According to a number of sources, only a minority of Saudis consider themselves Wahhabis, although according to other sources, the Wahhabi affiliation is up to 40%, making it a very dominant minority, at the very least using a native population of 17 million based on "2008–09 estimates".^[21][22][23] A 2014 survey found that 97% of the young Saudis consider Islam "as the main influence that shapes their identity."^[24][25]

Public worship and proselytising by non-Muslims, including the distribution of non-Muslim religious materials (such as theBible), is illegal in Saudi Arabia.^[26][27] Non-Muslim foreigners attempting to acquire Saudi Arabian nationality must convert to Islam.^[14]

The kingdom is called the "home of Islam"; it is whereProphetMuhammad lived and died, and united and ruled theArabian Peninsula,^[2] and the location of the cities ofMecca andMedina, now thetwo holiest cities of Islam, (the official title of theKing of Saudi Arabia is "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques"—the two being in Mecca and Medina.)^[3] Non-Muslims are forbidden from entering the holy cities, (although some Western non-Muslims have been able to enter, disguised as Muslims).^[28] The kingdom attracts millions of MuslimHajj pilgrims annually, and thousands of clerics and students who come from across theMuslim world to study.^[3]

In the 18th century, a pact between Islamic preacherMuhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and a regional emir,Muhammad bin Saud, brought a revival of Islam (Salafism - that is, following the Quran and Sunnah in light of the interpretation of ‘As Salaf As Salih’) ofSunni Islam first to theNajd region and then to theArabian Peninsula. Referred to by supporters as "Salafism" and by others as "Wahhabism", this interpretation of Islam became the state religion and interpretation of Islam espoused by Muhammad bin Saud and his successors (theAl Saud family), who eventually created themodern kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. The Saudi government has spent tens of billions of dollars of its petroleum export revenue throughout the Islamic world and elsewhere on building mosques, publishing books, giving scholarships and fellowships,^[29] hosting international Islamic organisations, and promoting its form of Islam, sometimes referred to as "petro-Islam".^[30]

The mission to call to Islam the way the Salaf practiced it has been dominant inNajd for two hundred years, but in most other parts of the country—Hejaz, theEastern Province,Najran—it has dominated only since 1913–1925.^[31]

Starting in late 2017, underCrown PrinceMohammed bin Salman, dramatic changes have been made in religious policy, including the elimination of the power ofthe religious police, the lifting of bans on amusement parks, cinemas, concert venues, and driving of motor vehicles by women.^[7][32]

An estimated 5–10%^[33][34][35] of citizens in Saudi Arabia are Shia Muslims, most of whom are adherents toTwelver Shia Islam. Twelvers are predominantly represented by theBaharna community living in theEastern Province, with the largest concentrations inQatif, and half the population inal-Hasa. In addition there is a small Twelver Shia minority inMedina (called theNakhawila). Sizable andIsma'ili communities also live inNajran along the border withYemen.

According to Human Rights Watch, the Shia Muslim minority face systematic discrimination from the Saudi Arabian government in education, the justice system and especially religious freedom.^[36] Shias also face discrimination in employment and restrictions are imposed on the public celebration of Shia festivals such asAshura and on the Shia taking part in communal public worship.^[37][38]

In 2022, thekingdom's total population was approximately 35 million; it was estimated that of these, over one-third wereforeign workers.^[1] Foreign workers applying for visas are informed that they have the right to worship privately and to possess personal religious items; however, there is no freedom of religion in the legal system, and there are reports of non-Sunnis and non-Muslims being arrested and found guilty of religious crimes.^[1]

As no faith other than Islam is permitted to be practiced openly, no churches, synagogues, temples, gurudwaras, shrines, kingdom halls, or other non-Muslim houses of worship are permitted in the country although there were nearly three million Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs in 2022.^[1][39] Foreign workers are not allowed to celebrate Christmas orEaster; private prayer services are suppressed, and theSaudi religious police reportedly regularly search the homes of Christians.^[39] In 2007, Human Rights Watch requested thatKing Abdullah stop a campaign to round up and deport foreign followers of theAhmadiyya faith.^[40]

Proselytizing by non-Muslims is illegal andconversion by Muslims to another religion (apostasy) carries thedeath penalty, though there have been no confirmed reports of executions for apostasy.^[1] Religious inequality extends to compensation awards in court cases. Once fault is determined, a Muslim receives the full amount of compensation determined, a Jew or Christian half, and all others a sixteenth.^[39]

The classical Arabic historians tell us that in the year 20 after thehijra (Muhammad's move fromMecca toMedina), corresponding to 641 of the Christian calendar, the CaliphUmar decreed that Jews and Christians should be removed from Arabia to fulfill an injunctionMuhammad uttered on his deathbed: "Let there not be two religions in Arabia." The people in question were the Jews of the oasis ofKhaybar in the north and the Christians ofNajran in the south.

[The hadith] was generally accepted as authentic, and Umar put it into effect. Compared with European expulsions, Umar's decree was both limited and compassionate. It did not include southern and southeastern Arabia, which were not seen as part of Islam's holy land. ... the Jews and Christians of Arabia were resettled on lands assigned to them – the Jews in Syria, the Christians in Iraq. The process was also gradual rather than sudden, and there are reports of Jews and Christians remaining in Khaybar and Najran for some time after Umar's edict.

But the decree was final and irreversible, and from then until now the holy land of theHijaz has been forbidden territory for non-Muslims. According to theHanbali school of Islamic jurisprudence, accepted by both the Saudi Arabians and the declaration's signatories, for a non-Muslim even to set foot on the sacred soil is a major offense. In the rest of the kingdom, non-Muslims, while admitted as temporary visitors, were not permitted to establish residence or practice their religion.^[41]

While Saudi Arabia does allow non-Muslims to live inSaudi Arabia to work, they may not practice religion publicly. According to the government of theUnited Kingdom:

The public practice of any form of religion other than Islam is illegal; as is an intention to convert others. However, the Saudi Arabian authorities accept the private practice of religions other than Islam, and you can bring a religious text into the country as long as it is for your personal use. Importing larger quantities than this can carry severe penalties.^[42]

Estimates of the number of Christians in Saudi Arabia range from 1,500,000^[43][44] to 2,100,000.^[1][45] As converting from Islam is illegal, the official government position is that all Christians in the Kingdom are foreign workers.^[43][44]

Christians have complained of religious persecution by authorities. In one case in December 2012, 35 Ethiopian Christians working inJeddah (six men and 29 women who held a weekly evangelical prayer meeting) were arrested and detained by the kingdom’s religious police for holding a private prayer gathering. While the official charge was “mixing with the opposite sex” - a crime for unrelated people in Saudi Arabia - the offenders complained they were arrested for praying as Christians.^[46] A 2006 report inAsia News states that there are "at least one million"Roman Catholics in the kingdom. It states that they are being "denied pastoral care ... Catechism for their children - nearly 100,000 - is banned." It reports the arrest of a Catholic priest for saying mass in 2006. "Fr. George [Joshua] had just celebrated mass in a private house when seven religious policemen (muttawa) broke into the house together with two ordinary policemen. The police arrested the priest and another person."^[47]

According to the Middle East editor ofThe Economist magazine, Nicolas Pelham, the kingdom contains "perhaps the largest and fastest-growing Christian community in the Middle East" and strict religious laws - such as banning Christians from Mecca and Medina - are not always enforced:^[48]

Though Christians are forbidden from worshiping publicly, congregations at weekly prayer meetings on foreign compounds can be several hundred strong.^[48]

In 2018, it was reported that thereligious police had stopped enforcing the ban on Christians religious services anywhere in the Kingdom whether publicly or privately, and for the first time, a "documented Christian service" was openly conducted. Sometime before 1 December 2018, aCoptic Mass was performed in the city of Riyadh by Ava Morkos, Coptic Bishop of Shobra Al-Kheima in Egypt, during his visit to Saudi Arabia (according to Egyptian and other Arab media).^[49][43]Ava Morkos was originally invited to Saudi Arabia by Crown PrinceMohammad bin Salman in March 2018.^[43]

As of 2001, there were an estimated 1,500,000 Indian nationals in Saudi Arabia,^[50] most of them Muslims, but someHindus. In 2022, the estimate was 708,000 Hindus.^[1] Like other non-Muslim religions, Hindus are not permitted to worship publicly in Saudi Arabia.^{[citation needed]}

Disbelief in God is a capital offense in the kingdom.^[51] Traditionally, influential conservative clerics have used the label ‘atheist’ to apply not to those who profess to believe that God does not exist, but to "those who question their strict interpretations of Islamic scriptures or express doubts about the dominant version of Islam known asWahhabism".^[51] Examples of those so condemned (but not executed) include:

• Hamza Kashgari, who was jailed for 20 months after tweeting some unconventional thoughts about Muhammad, "none of which indicated he did not believe in God".^[51]
• Raif Badawi (editor of the Free Saudi Liberals website), who was sentenced to 1000 lashes, ten years in prison and fined 1 million riyal (equal to about $267,000) in 2014 after he was convicted of insulting Islam on his website and on television. The original 2013 sentence was seven years and 600 lashes, but was changed on appeal.^[52][53]

In February / March 2014, a series of new anti-terrorism laws were decreed. Article 1 of the law also conflated atheism and religious dissent, outlawing "calling for atheist thought in any form, or calling into question the fundamentals of the Islamic religion on which this country is based".^[54][55]

According to "anecdotal, but persistent" evidence, since sometime around 2010, the number of atheists in the kingdom has been growing.^[51][56][57] News agencies such asAlhurra,^[58] Saurress^[59] and the American performance-management consulting companyGallup.^{[60][61][62][63][64]}

According to a 2014 report, a commission set up by theCommittee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice In its report, the commission said that it got over 9,341 complaints about pornographic sites in one year. It also received over 2,734 reports about sites that promoted atheism and misleading information about religion.^[65] A government official announced in that same year that 850 websites and social media pages espousing views deemed to be "atheistic" in nature have been blocked in the country over a span of 16 months.^[66]

Saudi Arabia is an Islamictheocracy.^[67] Religious minorities do not have the right to practice theirreligion openly. Conversion from Islam to another religion ispunishable by death asapostasy.^[68] Proselytizing by non-Muslims, including the distribution of non-Muslim religious materials such asBibles,Bhagavad Gita,Torot andAhmedi books is illegal. In late 2014, a law was promulgated calling for the death penalty for anyone bringing into the country "publications that have a prejudice to any other religious beliefs other than Islam" (thought to include non-Muslim religious books).^[69][70][71]

The 2019 annual report of theUnited States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) noted that Saudi Arabia was seen as one of 16 “countries of particular concern” for engaging in or tolerating “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations [of religious freedom]”.^[72][73] That status continues in 2022.^[1]

In 2023, the country was scored zero out of 4 for religious freedom.^[74] In the same year, it was ranked as the 13th worst place in the world to be a Christian byOpen Doors, a Christian charity organization.^[75]

• International propagation of Salafism and Wahhabism

• Religion in Saudi Arabia
• Human rights in Saudi Arabia

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