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According to a May 5, 2024 article in Zawia3, a somewhat polemic Egyptian political news source, 2024 source:

accurately determining the religious population composition in Saudi Arabia is challenging; all citizens are considered Muslims by the state

i.e. officially there are no citizens of other religions. (As that piece also discusses, that doesn't apply to foreigners working in the kingdom, for whom there was e.g. even a mass held in 2018.)

So, is it true that all citizens of Saudi Arabia "are considered Muslims by the state"?

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    I think it is fallacious to assume that a large government will have exactly one stance on a controversial religious issue like this.
    – Oddthinking
    Commented Sep 4 at 13:59
  • @Oddthinking: thanks for the edits. I don't want to get into a polemic/discussion in comments on the nature of the Saudi government. Answers could ideally clarify that, if there are e.g. various branches [or levels] of government with different views on this. Commented Sep 4 at 14:06
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    see my answer here about the possibility of non-Muslim Saudi citizens which is closely related (but imo slightly distinct). I think it will come down to whether you consider apostates (who are legally recognised, even if only so they can be prosecuted where they are potentially subject to the death penalty) to be apostate Muslims, or non-Muslims. I suspect (but do not know) the Saudi government would claim the former. Compare the identity of "lapsed Catholic" vs atheist/agnostic. politics.stackexchange.com/questions/88942/…
    – Tristan
    Commented Sep 4 at 14:52
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    @Tristan: yeah, but you've not provided any sources in your answer there, thus far. Commented Sep 4 at 14:53
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    @Believeitornot... if they are stateless then they are by definition not Saudi citizens...
    – Tristan
    Commented Sep 4 at 15:28

2 Answers 2

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Yes.

US consulate report on Saudi Arabia

Conversion from Islam to another religion is grounds for the charge of apostasy, which is legally punishable by death, although courts have not carried out a death sentence for apostasy in recent years.

The law requires applicants for citizenship to attest to being Muslim

The law deems children born to Muslim fathers as Muslim

State department

The U.S. government estimates that between 85 and 90 percent of the country's citizens are Sunni Muslims. Shia Muslims constitute 10 to 12 percent of the .

MEC

All Saudi citizens are declared by the State to be Muslims

ARDA

While accurate religious demographics are difficult to obtain, approximately 90 percent of citizens are Sunni Muslims, who predominantly subscribe to the Government-sanctioned interpretation of Islam. In the western Hejaz region, there are sizeable communities following other Sunni interpretations.

Ten percent of citizens are Shi'a Muslim

Cultural Atlas

Religion is a core aspect of everyday life in Saudi Arabia. It plays a dominant role in the country’s governance and legal system, deeply influences culture and daily life. The official religion is Islam, with the majority of Saudi citizens being Sunni Muslims (roughly 90%), typically following the Hanbali school of Islamic jurisprudence. It is estimated a further 10% of Saudi citizens are Shi’a Muslims.

ERT

while the native population is all Muslim (85% Sunni, 15% Shia) and ethnically Arab. There is a small minority of remaining Bedouin desert tribes.

Additionally non citizens are required to carry religious identify cards

The government requires noncitizen legal residents to carry an identity card containing a religious designation for "Muslim" or "non-Muslim."

Saudi citizens are not required to carry that card. In a nation that legally treats non-Muslims differently (it follows an interpretation of sharia law which treats non-Muslims differently). This tells us something about how Saudi Arabia views its citizens.

Saudi Arabia has expelled non-Muslims from its territory.

70 years ago the city of Najran was conquered by Saudi Arabia. After a lot of persecution, the 600 Najrani Jews were allowed 1 day to leave, or they would "never leave again".

I interpret "or never leave again" to imply that those groups who refused to leave were buried in the sand. Their memory washed away by the wind.

Saudi Arabia barely, barely tolerates Muslims from a different sect as citizens. And the clash between the majority/minority population is quite vocal despite Saudi Arabia's censorship (and beheading of journalists)... I think an official non-Muslim minority citizen population would make the news occasionally.

Foreign Policy

Saudi Arabia still forbids the construction of Shiite mosques

UAB

textbooks used in elementary and middle schools stigmatize Shia beliefs and practices and go as far as to claim that Shia Muslims are disbelievers, suggesting that Shia should not be considered Muslims

newarab

senior Wahhabi clerics - who strongly influence the royal family - endorse execution by beheading for offences that include apostasy, adultery and sorcery. They also often describe Shia Muslims as heretics.

TLDR: In Saudi Arabia you are Muslim if your father is Muslim. In order to apply for citizenship you must be a Muslim. And leaving Islam is punishable by death. More specifically you need to be a Sunnite.

Note: I am not saying that aren't Saudi Arabian Citizens who are secretly Christian, Buddhist, Atheist, etc., ... What I am saying is that such individuals keep that belief private and are careful to show up to the mosque every Friday.

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    Does everyone have to apply for citizenship though (in order to become a citizen)? Commented Sep 4 at 15:16
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    This suffers from a bootstrapping problem. If there exists a population of non-Muslim Saudi citizens, they could continue to exist following those restrictions (as stated), so you would need to also prove that no such community exists. Likewise there is the edge case of the child of apostates (in which case the exact timeline may be important). For the record, I believe this answer is fundamentally correct, but it does not yet demonstrate that sufficiently (especially for this cite)
    – Tristan
    Commented Sep 4 at 15:16
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    @Questor this is all well and good, but for this to be a good answer on this site, you will need to make those arguments in the answer itself (rather than in comments, which are temporary), and back those claims with sources
    – Tristan
    Commented Sep 4 at 15:42
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    @Tristan The Jewish one is an example of Saudi Arabia expelling non-muslim native populations who could have claimed citizenship... They have done this repeatedly throughout the history of the Kingdom... A thousand years ago large chunks of Saudi Arabia had Christian majorities.
    – Questor
    Commented Sep 4 at 17:08
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    @Tristan: It's not pleasant to talk about, but Saudi Arabia is credibly accused of killing non-Muslim refugees to prevent them from seeking asylum and thus emigrating.
    – Corbin
    Commented Sep 5 at 6:25
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Saudi Arabia does not ask about religion on its census. However, it (apparently) doesn't ask about ethnicity either, so it's impossible to take this omission as proof of anything other than how difficult it is to get statistics.

Searching around, I found sources that claim that all citizens must be Muslim. The ones with references cited the Basic Law. That probably refers to this (or any of the other many places in it that refer to God/Islam):

The nucleus of Saudi society is the family and its members should be brought up on the basis of the Islamic creed and its requirement of allegiance and obedience to God, to His Messenger and to those in authority; respect for and implementation of laws, and love of and pride in the homeland and its gloious history.

The creed is on the flag in Arabic: "There is no god but God and Muhammad is the Messenger of God".

Looking anywhere else, it's a lot more complicated. There are plenty of other sources that state that there is no law requiring Saudis be Muslim. Non-Muslim Saudis do exist and can practice their faith somewhat, though the government makes this hard in a number of ways. According to Arab News in 2003:

Deputy Interior Minister Prince Ahmad yesterday denied allegations by human rights organizations that the Kingdom was oppressing people of other faiths and preventing them from practicing their religious rituals.

“These allegations are totally untrue. The reality is quite the contrary. There are thousands of non-Muslims with different religious faiths in the Kingdom. We don’t interfere in their personal faiths,” Prince Ahmad told reporters after attending a function in Riyadh.

However, the minister said the Kingdom would not allow the public practice of non-Islamic rituals. “Everybody is aware of this when they come to the Kingdom. We don’t interfere in the affairs of other countries and we don’t allow anybody to do anything contrary to Islam. People are free to practice their religious faiths and beliefs at home and in private,” he added.

(The prince is a biased source, of course. See also the testimony of a Saudi church leader on the subject of arrests made for practicing Christians who were "mixing sexes".)

As for naturalization, the International Religious Freedom Report 2008 cites the Saudi Arabian Citizenship System:

Although no law specifically requires citizens to be Muslim, Article 12.4 of the Naturalization Law requires that applicants attest to their religious affiliation, and Article 14.1 requires applicants to get a certificate endorsed by their local imam. Most non-Muslims and Muslims whose beliefs do not adhere to the Government-approved interpretation of Islam must practice their religion in private and are vulnerable to discrimination, harassment, detention, and if a noncitizen, deportation.

See also Freedom of religion in Saudi Arabia.

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    this answer doesn't seem to properly distinguish sources discussing Saudi residents (e.g. the Crown Prince) and those discussing Saudi citizens (the others), and only the latter are the topic of this question
    – Tristan
    Commented Sep 4 at 16:34
  • "we do not allow anybody to do anything contrary to Islam" very strongly implies that even private practice of other religions isn't allowed, even though it may not be actively persecuted (most likely for pragmatic reasons, it'd be simply too much work for the religious police to go door to door at every building several times a day)
    – jwenting
    Commented Sep 6 at 6:17
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    Further to the comment by @Tristan, the quotation about thousands of non-Muslims in the kingdom does not support the preceding claim that non-Muslim Saudis exist, since it's entirely possible (indeed, it is certain) that Prince Ahmed was referring to non-Saudis.
    – phoog
    Commented Sep 9 at 13:33

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