Saudi Arabia

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Saudi Arabia The Mutaween (مطوعين in Arabic) (variant English spellings: mutawwain, muttawa, mutawallees, mutawa’ah, mutawi’) are the government -authorized or -recognized religious police (or clerical police or public order police) within Islamist theocracies which adhere to varied interpretations of Sharia Law, and in which the governments are either directly controlled by, or... Image File history File links Coat_of_arms_of_Saudi_Arabia. ... Politics of Saudi Arabia takes place in a framework of an absolute monarchy whereby the King of Saudi Arabia is not only head of state, but also the head of government. ...

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The Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (abbreviated CPVPV; هيئه الأمر بالمعروف و النهي عن المنكر in Arabic) is the English name of the Saudi Arabian government bureaucracy employing "religious police" or mutaween (مطوعين romanized in English) to enforce Sharia Law within that Islamic nation. (See mutawa'een for a list of variant spellings and an extended description of Islamic religious police.) Its approximately 3500 members, and many more volunteers, patrol the streets enforcing dress codes, strict separation of men and women, salah prayer by Muslims during prayer times, and other behavior it believes to be commanded by Islam. The King of Saudi Arabia is Saudi Arabias head of state and monarch. ... The Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia is formally the Head of government under the Malik (King), who is the rather absolute Head of State of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. ... The custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud (Arabic: , born August 1, 1924) [2] is the King of Saudi Arabia. ... The House of Saud ( transliteration: ) is the royal family of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. ... Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques is a title given to the King of Saudi Arabia. ... A Crown Prince or Crown Princess is the heir or heiress apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. ... The Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia is formally the Head of government under the Malik (King), who is the rather absolute Head of State of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. ... Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud (Arabic: ) (born January 5, 1928 in Riyadh) is the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, and First Deputy Prime Minister. ... Saudi Arabia has no parliament. ... Dr. Salih Bin Abdullah Bin Hemaid grew up in Buraidah (President of Saudi Majlis e Shura. ... The Basic Law of Saudi Arabia means, that you have to eat chocolate. ... Saudi Arabia is divided into 13 provinces (mintaqat, singular - mintaqah). ... Elections in Saudi Arabia gives information on election and election results in Saudi Arabia. ... // Human rights in Saudi Arabia are generally considered to be minimal to non-existent. ... The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an Islamic theocratic monarchy in which Islam is the official religion; the law requires that all Saudi citizens be Muslims. ... Saudi foreign policy objectives are to maintain its security and its paramount position on the Arabian Peninsula, defend general Arab and Islamic interests, promote solidarity among Islamic governments, and maintain cooperative relations with other oil-producing and major oil-consuming countries. ... Information on politics by country is available for every country, including both de jure and de facto independent states, inhabited dependent territories, as well as areas of special sovereignty. ... Arabic redirects here. ... The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a country on the Arabian Peninsula. ... The Mutaween (مطوعين in Arabic) (variant English spellings: mutawwain, muttawa, mutawallees, mutawa’ah, mutawi’) are the government -authorized or -recognized religious police (or clerical police or public order police) within Islamist theocracies which adhere to varied interpretations of Sharia Law, and in which the governments are either directly controlled by, or... Due to the fact that the Arabic language has a number of phonemes that have no equivalent in English or other European languages, a number of different transliteration methods have been invented to represent certain Arabic characters, due to various conflicting goals. ... Sharia (Arabic شريعة also Sharia, Shariah or Syariah) is traditional Islamic law. ... Islam (Arabic: ; ( â–¶ (help· info)), the submission to God) is a monotheistic faith, one of the Abrahamic religions and the worlds second-largest religion. ... Clothing laws vary considerably around the world. ... Salat redirects here. ...

Enforcement

The religion police in Saudi Arabia are employed in direct order of command of King Abdullah. They are tasked with enforcing Sharia as defined in Saudi Arabia. In addition to having the power to arrest anyone engaged in homosexual acts, prostitution, fornication, or proselytizing of non-Muslim religions, they can also arrest unrelated males and females caught socializing, enforce Islamic dress-codes, Muslim dietary laws (e.g. pork), store closures during the prayer time. They prohibit the consumption or sale of alcoholic beverages and seize banned consumer products and media regarded as un-Islamic (such as CDs/DVDs of various Western musical groups, television shows and film). They also actively prevent the religious practices of other religions within Saudi Arabia.^[1][2] King Abdullah can refer to: Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, current king of Saudi Arabia Abdullah II, current king of Jordan Abdullah I, Emir of Transjordan (1921–1946) and King of Transjordan (1946–1949) This is a disambiguation page, a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ... Muslim dietary laws provide a set of rules as to what Muslims eat in their diet. ... For other uses, see Pork (disambiguation). ... Alcoholic beverages An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol, commonly known as alcohol, although in chemistry the definition of alcohol includes many other compounds. ...

Saudi mutaween are often accompanied by the regular police, but also patrol without police escort. They recently launched a website on which un-Islamic behavior can be reported. ^[3][4][5][6]

Among the Western practices suppressed by the Mutaween is the celebration of Valentine's Day. Condemning the festivities as a "pagan feast", Mutaween inspect hotels, restaurants, coffeehouses, and gift shops on February 14 to prevent Muslim couples from giving each other Valentines or other presents. The sale of red roses, red stuffed animals, red greeting cards and other red gift items is banned according to store owners. These items are confiscated, and those selling them subject to prosecution. ^[7][8] is the 45th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

More recently, the police have issued a decree banning the sale of dogs and cats, also seen as a sign of Western influence. The decree which applies to the Red Sea port city of Jiddah and the holy city of Mecca bans the sale of cats and dogs because “some youths have been buying them and parading them in public,” according to a memo from the Municipal Affairs Ministry to Jiddah’s city government.^[9] Location of the Red Sea The Red Sea is an inlet of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. ... For other uses, see Port (disambiguation). ... Jeddah (also Jedda, Jiddah, or Juddah) is a city in in western Saudi Arabia, on the Red Sea. ... This article is about the city in Saudi Arabia. ...

Controversy

Seal of the Committee

In May 2007 a man alleged to have alcohol in his home was arrested and reportedly beaten to death by CPVPV members in the Al-Oraija district of Riyadh. "The father of the deceased said that commission members continued to beat his handcuffed son, even though he was already covered in blood, until he died" at the Oraija CPVPV center in Riyadh.^[10] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Riyadh (Arabic: ar-Riyāḍ) is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. ...

Mutaween suppression of religious activity by non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia is also controversial. Asia News alleges that "at least one million" Roman Catholics in the kingdom are being "denied pastoral care ... none of them can participate in mass while they are in Saudi Arabia .... Catechism for their children – nearly 100,000 – is banned." It reports the arrest of a Catholic priest for saying mass. On 5 April, 2006 a Catholic priest, "Fr.George [Joshua] had just celebrated mass in a private house when seven religious policemen (muttawa) broke into the house together with two ordinary policemen. The police arrested the priest and another person." ^[11]

One of the most widely criticized examples of mutaween enforcement of Sharia law came in March of 2002, when 14 young girls died of burns or smoke asphyxiation by an accidental fire that engulfed their public school in Mecca. According to the statements of parents, firemen, and the regular police forces present at the scene, the religious police forcibly prevented girls from escaping the burning school by locking the doors of the school from the outside, and barring firemen from entering the school to save the girls, beating some of the girls and civil defense personnel in the process. Mutaween would not allow the girls to escape or to be saved because they were 'not properly covered', and the mutaween did not want physical contact to take place between the girls and the civil defense forces for fear of sexual enticement. The CPVPV denied the charges of beating or locking the gates but the incident and the accounts of witnesses were reported in Saudi newspapers such as the Saudi Gazette and Al-Iqtisaddiyya. The result was a very rare public criticism of the group.^[12] Also see: 2002 (number). ... Saudi Gazette is an English language daily newspaper published in Saudi Arabia. ...

Some members of the CPVPV have also been accused of political subversion and of being ex-convicts who were motivated to achieve Hafiz (Quran) as a way of reducing their prison sentences. Author Lawrence Wright has written of a conflict between the Mutaween and at least one allied imam and Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, the head of the Department of General Intelligence (Al Mukhabarat Al A'amah) between 1977 and 2001. After an imam denounced a female charitable organizations run by some of Turki's sisters and accused them of being "whores" during a Friday sermon, Turki demanded and received an apology. He then "secretly began monitoring members of the muttawa. He learned that many of them were ex-convicts whose only job qualification was that they had memorized the Quran in order to reduce their sentences." But Turki believed they had become "so powerful" they "threatened to overthrow the government."^[13] For other uses, see Hafiz (disambiguation). ... Prince Turki bin Faisal al Saud (born February 15, 1945) is the former Saudi Head of Intelligence, Saudi Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Ireland and as of July 2005, the Saudi ambassador to the United States. ... Al Mukhabarat Al Aamah is the agency responsible for gathering intelligence for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. ...

The Saudi blogger The Religious Policeman is a frequent critic of the group and its activities. The Religious Policeman is a weblog written by an anonymous Saudi Arabian man who writes under the pseudonym of Alhamedi Alanezi. ...

Reform

In July 2006 it was announced that the committee would no longer be allowed to interrogate those it arrests for behavior deemed un-Islamic. Prior to this commission members enjoyed almost total power to arrest, detain, and interrogate those suspected of violating the Sharia.^[14].

The Saudi Mutaween "announced on June 10, 2007, the creation of a “department of rules and regulations” to ensure the activities of commission members comply with the law, after coming under heavy pressure for the death of two people in its custody in less than two weeks" [1]. The governmental National Society for Human Rights criticised the behaviour of the religious police in May 2007 in its first report since its establishment in March 2004. In May 2006, the Interior Ministry issued a decree stating that “the role of the commission will end after it arrests the culprit or culprits and hands them over to police, who will then decide whether to refer them to the public prosecutor”. is the 161st day of the year (162nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Interior Minister is a member of a Cabinet in a Government. ...

Time Magazine ran a report about the Mutaween in August 2007. It noted that "a campaign using text messages sent to mobile phones is calling on a million Saudis to declare that “2007 is the year of liberation”". Despite statements of reform, the Mutaween turned down Time's request for interviews.^[15] (Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ... SMS may refer to: Short message service, a form of text messaging on cell phones Sega Master System – an 8-bit video game console from the 1980s Seiner Majestät Schiff, His Majestys Ship in the German Kaiserliche Marine and the Austro-Hungarian Navy SMS (comics), a British comic...

Other similar groups

Outside of Saudi Arabia, the Taliban regime, or Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, also had a "Ministry of the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice" with a very similar religious policing function. The Taliban (deposed in 2001), are thought to have borrowed the Saudi policing policy not only because they also had a strict Sharia law policy, but because of important financial and diplomatic support Saudi Arabia gave them.^[16] The Taliban (Pashto: , also anglicized as Taleban) are a Sunni Muslim and ethnic Pashtun movement [2] that ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, when their leaders were removed from power by a cooperative military effort between the Northern Alliance, United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. ... Flag of the Islamic Emirate Afghanistan (1997-2001). ... This article is about Islamic religious law. ...

References

is the 49th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

News items

• Teddy bears and roses seized on Valentine’s Day Sunday 17 February 2002

General

• Official site of Province of Medina's branch (Arabic)
• Amnesty International Report 2002 - Middle East and North Africa
• BBC Article

See also

• Mutaween
• Sharia