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Saudi Arabia
Also Known As Saudi
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Saudi Arabia contains Mecca and Medina, Islam's two holiest cities, and hosts the Hajj pilgrimage, which draws Muslims from around the world each year to sites tied directly to the life of Muhammad. The state follows a strict Sunni Hanbali and Salafi religious establishment, sometimes called Wahhabism after the eighteenth century reformer Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab, and public worship by non-Muslims is prohibited, with the Shia minority concentrated in the Eastern Province reporting longstanding restrictions on its own practice. Non-Muslim entry to Mecca and Medina is forbidden entirely. The atlas records Saudi Arabia primarily for its centrality to Islamic pilgrimage and law rather than for religious diversity, which the state itself does not permit to develop openly.
Facts
Law and State
Establishment StatusSunni Islam of the Hanbali school (in its Wahhabi/Salafi form) is named the state religion under the 1992 Basic Law of Governance, Article 1; unlike a state church model this is the state's own constitutional identity rather than a privileged institution alongside a secular legal order, so the category understates the arrangement more than it overstates it. State Funding MechanismSaudi Arabia funds mosque life through its Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Dawah and Guidance, which pays imams and muezzins from the state budget across the kingdom's mosques, terming the payment a disbursement from the Beit Maal Al-Muslimeen, the treasury of the Muslims, rather than an ordinary civil salary. Custodianship of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet's Mosque now sits with an independent supervisory body created in 2023, and the General Authority for Awqaf separately invested more than 2.5 billion Saudi riyals in development projects in 2024, funding religious and charitable infrastructure outside the ministry's own budget line. 4 Apostasy or Blasphemy LawSaudi Arabia has no single codified penal statute for apostasy; it is treated as a hudud offense under uncodified Hanbali fiqh as applied by the courts, traditionally carrying the death penalty, though U.S. State Department reporting records no confirmed state execution for apostasy alone in recent years. Blasphemy and insulting Islam, the monarchy or the state are separately criminalized, including under the 2014 Law on Combating Terrorism Crimes and Financing (which has been used to prosecute speech offenses) and under general Sharia-based criminal practice, with penalties ranging from lengthy imprisonment and flogging to, in the most severe interpretations, death. 3 Registration or Recognition RegimeThe Basic Law of Governance contains no legal recognition or protection of freedom of religion; the country's official religion is Islam, and the Quran and Sunna serve as the constitution. The law prohibits public non-Islamic worship, the public display of non-Islamic religious symbols and proselytizing by a non-Muslim, and it forbids all non-Muslim houses of worship, so there is no mechanism by which a non-Muslim religious group could register or be recognized. The United States has designated Saudi Arabia a Country of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act every year since 2004. 3 Ban or Official WatchlistThe Secretary of State designated Saudi Arabia a Country of Particular Concern on 29 December 2023, one of twelve states named in that round, under the International Religious Freedom Act for having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom. 3 Concordat BasisSaudi Arabia has no concordat with the Holy See and no diplomatic relations with it at all. Article 1 of the Basic Law of Governance, promulgated by Royal Decree No. A/90 on 1 March 1992, declares the Kingdom's religion Islam and names the Quran and the Sunna of the Prophet its constitution, functioning as the country's written constitutional framework in place of a separate charter. 5 Geography
LatitudeApproximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement. LongitudeApproximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement. Status
Legal StatusState religion is Sunni Islam of the Hanbali/Wahhabi tradition; no legal provision for public non-Muslim worship; the monarch has held the title Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques since 1986. 3 Demographics
Religious CompositionAbout 93% Sunni Muslim and 5-6% Shia Muslim (concentrated in the Eastern Province); non-Muslim public worship is not permitted (Pew Research Center, Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020). 1 Government
Government Type Sovereignty StatusSovereign UN member state 2 Established Year23 September 1932 (unification of the kingdom) Location
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Religion and History in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is almost entirely Muslim, with Pew Research placing the figure near 93 percent Sunni and about 5 to 6 percent Shia, the latter concentrated in the Eastern Province around Qatif and al-Ahsa; the kingdom's state doctrine follows the Hanbali legal school as interpreted through the Wahhabi reform movement founded by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in the eighteenth century, whose 1744 alliance with the Al Saud family shaped the kingdom's religious and political foundation.
Mecca and Medina, Islam's two holiest cities, sit within Saudi territory; Mecca's Kaaba is the focal point of the five daily prayers and the annual Hajj pilgrimage, obligatory once in a lifetime for able Muslims, while Medina holds the Prophet's Mosque and tomb. Non-Muslim public worship has historically been prohibited, and the country has no churches, synagogues or temples open to public non-Muslim practice, though foreign workers, who make up a large share of the population and include Christian, Hindu and Buddhist communities from South and Southeast Asia, may practice privately. Custodianship of the two holy mosques has been a title claimed by the Saudi monarch since 1986, replacing an earlier royal style in official religious contexts.
Guardianship of Mecca, Medina and the Hajj
The Saudi monarch holds the formal title Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, adopted by King Fahd in 1986, reflecting the kingdom's role in administering the Hajj, which the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah organizes annually for several million pilgrims from across the Muslim world, allocating national quotas by country population; the 2015 Mina stampede, one of the deadliest Hajj disasters in modern history, killed over two thousand pilgrims by independent counts and prompted safety reforms to crowd management and infrastructure. Religious authority in the kingdom rests partly with the Council of Senior Scholars, a state-appointed Wahhabi clerical body whose rulings carry significant legal and social weight, though Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's reforms since 2017 have curtailed the religious police's public enforcement powers and permitted cinemas, mixed-gender events and women driving, changes framed domestically as a return to a more moderate pre-1979 social order rather than religious liberalization as such.
The 1979 seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca by armed millenarian rebels, ended after a two-week siege with French and Pakistani special forces assistance, is widely credited with pushing the kingdom toward stricter religious enforcement for decades afterward, a policy only substantially reversed in the recent reform period.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Ancient and Historical Regions
Arabia corresponds broadly to modern Saudi Arabia and its neighbours on the peninsula.
Associated With
His 1992 Basic Law states that the constitution of the kingdom is the Quran and the practice of the Prophet.
State religion; about 93% Sunni and 5 to 6% Shia, home to Mecca and Medina.
This source names Saudi Arabia directly: "headquartered in Lisbon and founded by Saudi Arabia and Austria with the Holy See as a founding observer, publishes its 2024 annual report on its own site alongside prior years."
This source names Saudi Arabia directly: "on KAICIID's 2012 founding by Austria, Saudi Arabia and Spain, its Holy See founding observer status, its 2022 move to Lisbon and its religion-representative Board of Directors."
He lived and taught in Medina, and took the settled practice of the city as a source of law.
Of the Banu Hanifa in al-Yamama, in the centre of the Arabian peninsula.
The state whose founding king authorized the demolitions after consolidating control of the Hejaz.
A Medinan of the Khazraj who served the Prophet as a scribe.
Contains
Originated Here
Saudi Arabia covers most of the peninsular homeland, including Mecca and Medina.
Spread Events Here
Mecca, in modern Saudi Arabia.
Medina, in modern Saudi Arabia.
Sources
1. Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020
2. The World Factbook (Central Intelligence Agency)
3. International Religious Freedom Report
United States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom, US Department of State, 2023View the Source 4. Saudi Arabia's General Authority For Awqaf Invested Over SAR 2.5 Billion In Development Projects In 2024 (Finance Middle East, 2025)
5. Basic Law of Governance, Saudi Arabia (Royal Decree A/90, 1992) (WIPO Lex)
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Royal Decree No. A/90, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO Lex)View the Source The Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition
Oxford University Press, Oxford University Pressdemonym / adjectival formView the Source Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
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