Special Dispatch
May 13, 2003
No.504
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Saudi Religious Police Launch Website
The Al-Madina regional branch of the Saudi religious and morality police, formally known as "The Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices," recently launched its new website. (1) The site posts news items, citizens' violations, and includes a section that allows citizens to inform anonymously on persons they suspect of violating religious and moral laws. The following is a summary of the website's recent content:
The Religious Police Vs. 'Al-Watan'
The news section of the website included a response to an article that appeared in the Saudi government daily Al-Watan. According to the Al-Watan article, one of the newspaper's correspondents was arrested by the Authority and taken to its Riyadh office. Inspector "Abu Abd Al-'Aziz" asked the prisoner to remove his Kaffiyeh, and after he had done so, told him, "Your hair is long and we want to cut it... Such long hair is proper only for the third sex [i.e. homosexuals]." The correspondent refused to allow his hair to be cut, but the investigator threatened to cut his hair by force. At the same time, the investigators began beating another prisoner until he bled. A barber then entered and cut the correspondent's hair.
Afterwards, the correspondent was charged five riyals, approximately one dollar, for the haircut, and was forced to sign a sheet of charges including the charge of "lusting after girls by the school gates." According to the newspaper, the charge sheet also included a "strange accusation" that the paper chose not to publish as it deemed it embarrassing. The correspondent initially refused to sign, but did so after he was threatened with more beatings. The investigator destroyed the correspondent's notes and confiscated his money and notebook. He then called Al-Watan's employees "secular" and asked whether "there was mingling between male and female journalists in the newspaper's offices." When the correspondent refused to answer and threatened the investigator with legal action, the investigator said that the Authority was "an official body that no one can sue." (2)
Following the publishing of the Al-Watan article, the Authority posted a response by Authority Public Relations Director Ahmad bin Muhammad Al-Jurdan. In the response, he wrote: " ...We have been informed by the director of an Authority branch that a 20-year-old man was found in circumstances harming [morality] near one of the girls' schools when the girls were getting out of school. This individual, with the cooperation of the newspaper for which he works, tried to invent lies ... The newspaper should have confirmed the facts before publication, in accordance with the words of the Koran ... and in accordance with Section Nine of the Publications Law ... It should be noted that the news item had no specific aim and no message at all, and thus it appears that its aim was to create confusion regarding the Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vices. Your paper has in the past published similar items which were incorrect and did not serve the public inte!
rest or the desired goals. We hope that you will examine the veracity of what you publish and will cooperate with us in clinging to Allah ..."
Confiscating CDs, Burning Shoes, Making Arrests on Charges of Witchcraft
Among other news items posted on the Authority website were articles detailing the confiscation of CDs containing "permissive materials," the arrest of an Asian man belonging to the Sufi sect of Islam who "engaged in witchcraft," a study on the role of the Authority in the struggle against "ideological invasion," a report on the flogging of four people accused of harassing girls as they were leaving school, and a report on the burning of 250,000 forbidden articles such as "texts contradicting the faith, shoes with the name of Allah written on them, [and] items for the Holiday of Love [i.e. Valentine's Day]."
Another posting reported that the Authority was patrolling near girls' schools so as to prevent harassment of the girls and to ensure that the girls were wearing veils. The report stated that the patrols had caught some young men who were "loitering near the school while the girls were leaving," and that the young men had "been advised to cease this, and were told that anyone continuing with this ugly behavior would be flogged before the gates of the school." The item noted that the Authority's "field teams had noticed a reduction in the phenomenon following this practical measure."
The site also reported that a man was arrested selling CDs containing "permissive materials at a minimal price of 10 riyals!!" Also according to the website, "the enemies of Islam" had allowed in to the country video games for Sony Playstation which contained |