The branch of Saudi Arabia’s religious police formally known as “The Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices” recently launched a new website that highlights its activities.
The site allows citizens to inform anonymously on neighbors suspected of violating religious and moral laws, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI.
The website’s news section responded to an article in the Saudi government daily Al-Watan which claimed one of its correspondents was arrested by the Authority and forced to have his hair cut. A police inspector reportedly said this was necessary because “such long hair is proper only for the third sex [homosexuals].”
 Reference to ‘Jewish Barbie doll’ on Saudi religious police site |
The correspondent refused, but after investigators began beating another prisoner until he bled, a barber entered and cut the correspondent’s hair, the Al Watan story said. The reporter was charged five riyals, about $1, for the haircut and was forced to sign a sheet of charges including “lusting after girls by the school gates.”
According to Al-Watan, the charge sheet also included a “strange accusation” the paper chose not to publish because it was embarrassing. But after being threatened with more beatings, the correspondent eventually signed. The investigator destroyed the correspondent’s notes and confiscated his money and notebook. He 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.”
After the publishing of the Al-Watan article, the Authority posted a response by Public Relations Director Ahmad bin Muhammad Al-Jurdan, who accused the reporter and newspaper of trying to “invent lies.”
Al-Jurdan wrote to Al-Watan, “We hope that you will examine the veracity of what you publish and will cooperate with us in clinging to Allah … .”
Struggle against ‘ideological invasion’
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 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 [Valentine’s Day].”
Another posting reported the flogging of four people accused of harassing school girls. The Authority, which was patrolling near girls’ schools to prevent harassment and ensure the girls were wearing veils, said the patrols had caught some young men who were “loitering near the school while the girls were leaving.”
The young men had “been advised to cease this,” the report said, “and were told that anyone continuing with this ugly behavior would be flogged before the gates of the school.”
The item noted the Authority’s “field teams had noticed a reduction in the phenomenon following this practical measure.”
The website also reported “the enemies of Islam” had allowed in to the country video games for Sony Playstation which contained sexual content. “The Authority confiscated 130 such CDs, destroyed them, and punished the criminal,” its website said.
Another section of the website allows visitors to submit questions, MEMRI said. One visitor said a woman had bewitched him and when he went for treatment to one of the sheikhs, a Djinn, or Genie, spoke to him.
The Authority answered: “Our dear brother, you must go to the head of the Committee for the Struggle Against Witchcraft in Al-Madina, Sheikh Abdallah Al-Zahrani … . Often, Djinns lie, and their words cannot be trusted. Perhaps the Djinn, if indeed it was he who spoke, wants to make trouble between you and that person. We have already seen many lies of this kind.”
The same section allowed citizens to inform on their neighbors anonymously. One visitor said five of his neighbors did not join regular communal worship, especially the dawn worship. He added that some of them hold senior positions, and he wanted to know what could be done to make them worship.
He received the following reply: “Patience must be employed with this kind of people … . You can get help from members of the Authority near where you live.”
‘That Barbie doll is Jewish!’
Another section of the website, the “Exhibit of Violations,” displays confiscated items from the “permanent collection of violations of Islamic law at Authority headquarters in Al-Madina.”
It shows a photo of several Barbie dolls, along with the text: “The enemies of Islam want to invade us with all possible means, and therefore they have circulated among us this doll, which spreads deterioration of values and moral degeneracy among our girls.”
On the photo, under the heading “The Jewish Doll,” is a story titled “The Strange Request.”
The story reads: “One girl said to her mother: ‘Mother, I want jeans and a shirt open at the top, like Barbie’s!!’ The dolls of the Jewish Barbie in her naked garb [sic], their disgraceful appearance, and their various accessories are a symbol of the dissolution of values in the West. We must fully comprehend the danger in them.”
 Forbidden perfumes on religious police site |
The section also shows photos of perfume bottles shaped like a woman’s torso, with text reading: “Perfume, but … ! Examples of perfumes with good fragrances for women and evil bottles that harm the honor of the woman and undermine her morality. We must beware. The Prophet Muhammad said, ‘Any woman who wears perfume and passes by people so they can smell it is a whore … .'”
Goats and wolves
The website also posts issues of the Authority’s Al-Hisba magazine, MEMRI said.
An article titled “The Goat Hunts the Wolf” stated:
“In the past, it was the young man who preened in order to attract the girl’s attention. He played the part of the sophisticated wolf planning schemes to ensnare [her] … But these days, with the spread of the satellite channels and their influence, like deadly poison, all is reversed. In our time, the girls preen and dress in a way that attracts attention to ensnare the young man whose heart and religion are weak. The girl begins to devise schemes, and she plays the part of the wolf … . She tries to obtain a luxury watch, a beautiful bag, an evening gown, or even the newest model of mobile phone. And then what?! She goes to hell, as has happened to young people in the past. What is the meaning of these ideas, which lead to the collapse of our entire society? Why don’t the girls think of always wearing the veil to stop the corruption? Why don’t they seek to become women of value, instead of being easy prey in the mouths of all?”
Personal freedom ‘a lie’
The Authority’s website directly addresses the issue of personal freedom, posting the text of a book written by Dr. Fadhel Alha of the Department of Islamic Preaching and Communications at the University of Riyadh, which discusses the Authority’s activities.
Alha wrote:
“There are those who say that we must leave people alone and not interfere in personal matters of virtue from which they refrain, because this conflicts with their individual freedom which is set out in Islam. Those preaching this approach quote the words of Allah in the Quran: ‘There is no coercion in religion … .'”
“First of all, there is no such thing as ‘personal freedom.’ It is a lie. We would like to ask those who argue in this matter: Have you found personal freedom in the east of the land or in its west? In Eastern or Western regimes? None whatsoever, neither here nor there. Man is required to obey rules and regulations against his will everywhere. Is a man permitted, in the East or the West, to cross the street at a red light? In the West, is a man permitted to build a house with his own money … without observing the municipality’s regulations? In the East, the situation is even more clear, and he has no right to own a house at all.
“Second, the personal freedom granted by Islam to the Muslims lies in [Allah’s] liberating them from enslavement to men. This does not mean that man is liberated from enslavement to the God of these men …”
“Third, the verse ‘There is no coercion in religion’ does not mean that everyone can do what they want and refrain from doing what they don’t want, or that no one is entitled to require them to do the good that they have abandoned or to refrain from the evil that they do. The meaning of the verse … is that a person must not be forced to convert to Islam – and this too does not concern all non-Muslims, but only the People of the Book [Jews and Christians], [regarding] the Bedouin polytheist idol worshippers, you must either force them to convert to Islam, or fight them.”
Network ‘news judgment’ depends on who benefits
Tim Graham