Carol Fleming asks some interesting questions:
if you look at the trends, many of the US ambassadors posted to Israel have been Jewish. Yet by comparison, when has there been a muslim ambassador posted to Saudi Arabia? The US says it strives for understanding and always fostering furthering good relations yet it surprises me that I am not aware of any muslim US ambassador being posted to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Jeans 
What about a Muslim ambassador in Israel? A Jewish in Saudi Arabia? Why not?
THERE SHOULD BE A MUSLIM-AMERICAN AMBASSADOR TO THE KSA. IT WOULD HELP THE US WIN FRIENDS IF THE US HAD PEOPLE WHO UNDERSTOOD THE PEOPLE IT WAS TRYING TO BEFRIEND. SENDING A JEWISH AMBASSADOR INTO ISREAL HAS CLEARLY HELPED THE US-ISREALI RELATIONS.
ON THE FLIP SIDE OF THAT, I DON’T THINK THE KSA COULD HAVE A BETTER AMBASSADOR IN WASHINGTON THAN ADEL AL-JUBEIR. HE IS A GOOD FRESH FACE, WHO BRINGS A VERY MODERN AND CIVILIZED FACE TO THE KSA, IN A TIME WHEN MOST AMERICAN’S THINK SAUDI’S LIVE IN STONE AGE MIND SET. HE IS CHANGING THE WAY AMERICA VIEWS THE MIDDLE EAST!!
And should we have sent communist Ambassadors to the USSR and China? Just because the USSR and China could “relate” better to a communist?
I think we should send the best person for the job, regardless of religion. And their ideology must be 100% pro-US values, otherwise they are useless as Ambassadors. It isn’t the job of an Ambassador to please the host country. The job of an Ambassador is to represent the United States to foreign leaders.
Yes the ambassador should represent the country he/she is from but its not a matter of that its his JOB or about pleasing.. his job is to communicate and form a relationship between the country he is in and the country he is representing.. if the person understands the culture/religion from a personal perspective.. then for sure he/she will be able to communicate better Which it is his JOB to do with the host country, especially if there is a big difference between the two cultures and religions..
Forgive the cynicism, but if the US had a Muslim-American ambassador in the KSA, anything that one political group didn’t like about his actions or the actions of the KSA would instantly be blamed on his being a Muslim and ‘too close’ to the Saudis.
I think, as a matter of principle, the US should never send ambassadors to countries with which they have any tie whatsoever. That includes Jewish ambassadors to Israel.
An ambassador should understand the culture of the country he is stationed in, but he doesn’t have to agree with it. Why should the Saudi ambassador to the US have to be a Christian? He should speak English, he should know how the US constitution works, he should understand the religious beliefs of people like Bush; but he should not convert. Also, his next posting might be to a Buddhist country. Should he convert each time he moves?
Ahmed,
Thanks for posting my musings! I’m not in any way necessarily trying to combine religiion and politics but simply posing a query for thought. What started my musing was researching and seeing it was not unusual for US Ambassadors of the Jewish faith to be posted to Israel. So it made me wonder whether relations would be improved or further understood — if coincidentally– a muslim ambassador would ever be posted to KSA? Naturally one should not convert religions from location to location, that is ludicrous. While one can dream and speculate, how about imagining a future FEMALE Saudi ambassador to the USA? Another interesting thought, no?
Posting a non-Muslim ambassador to Saudi Arabia makes the point that we do not support Wahhabi intolerance of other religions. By not catering to the inhuman religious hatred Saudis feel for the non-Muslim world, we teach them how to deal with the modern world and to abandon their Stone Age prejudices.
As far as Adel Al-Jubeir is concerned, he comes across to Americans as a particularly oily purveyor of Wahhabi propaganda. It’s hardly convincing for him to claim that Wahhabism is being unfairly maligned when at the same time his embassy is handing out tourist brochures in Arabic that remind Muslims that it is their religious duty to hate America. Most Americans consider the Saudi representatives to be liars.