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The Mutaween (Arabic: طوعين) (variant English spellings: mutawwain, muttawa, mutawallees, mutawa’ah, mutawi’, mutawwa') are the government-authorized or -recognized religious police (or clerical police or public order police) who enforce varied interpretations of Sharia Law within Islamist theocracies (in which the governments are either directly controlled by, or fall significantly under the influence of, Islamic clergy). It has been suggested that Historical persecution by Christians#Theological debate of persecution be merged into this article or section. ... The Dechristianisation of France during the French Revolution is a conventional description of the results of a number of separate policies, conducted by various governments of France between the start of the French Revolution in 1789 and the Concordat of 1801. ... The struggle between church and state in Mexico broke out in armed conflict during the Cristero War (also known as the Cristiada) of 1926 to 1929. ... During the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, many of the Republican forces were violently anti-clerical anarchists and Communists, whose assaults during what has been termed Spains red terror included sacking and burning monasteries and churches and killing 6,832 members of the Catholic clergy. ... Conflicts between Christians and non-Christians have at times resulted in the persecution by Christians of non-Christians. ... There have been incidents of persecution committed by the Jewish people throughout history. ... This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. ... The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow was demolished by Soviet authorities in 1931 to make way for the Palace of Soviets. ... Chinese monk lighting incense in Beijing temple. ... A forced conversion occurs when someone adopts a religion or philosophy under the threat that a refusal would result in negative consequences not just in the afterlife but in this life too, ranging from job loss, social isolation to incarceration, torture, or death. ... A religious war is a war justified by religious differences. ... Religious discrimination is valuing a person or group lower because of their religion, or treating someone differently because of what they do or dont believe. ... Religion and neo-fascism refers to the relationship between neo-fascism and religion. ... Religious intolerance is either intolerance motivated by ones own religious beliefs or intolerance against anothers religious beliefs or practices. ... 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 in which governments are either directly controlled by or significantly under... Religious terrorism refers to terrorism justified or motivated by religion and is a form of religious violence. ... Religious violence Throughout history, religious beliefs have provoked some believers into violence. ... State atheism is the official rejection of religion in all forms by a government in favor of atheism. ... The term Spiritual abuse was coined in the late twentieth century to refer to abusive or aberrational practices identified in the behavior and teachings of some churches, spiritual and religious organizations and groups. ... Contrary to popular belief, the Africans enslaved to build the economic foundation of America were not Christians. ... Many followers of Ancient Greek religion have experienced persecution, mainly from Christians. ... Many adherents of the Ancient Roman religion were persecuted by Christians during the period after the death of Constantine and the reign of Julian, only to enjoy a respite for a number of years before the persecution resumed once again under Gratian and Theodosius I. Persecution in this sense may... Many atheists have experienced persecution, mainly from Christians and Muslims. ... The persecution of Baháís refers to the religious persecution of Baháís in various countries, especially in Iran, the nation of origin of the Baháí Faith, Irans largest religious minority and the location of one of the largest Baháí populations in the world. ... Many Buddhists have experienced persecution from non-Buddhists during the history of Buddhism. ... Cathars being expelled from Carcassonne in 1209. ... First Christians // In the two thousand years of the Christian faith, about 70 million believers have been killed for their faith, of whom 45. ... Many adherents of Germanic paganism have been persecuted, mainly by Christians. ... Persecution of Hindus refers to the religious persecution inflicted upon Hindus. ... An anti-Mormon political cartoon from the late nineteenth century. ... Conflicts between Muslims and non-Muslims made the persecution of both Muslims and non-Muslims a recurring phenomenon during the history of Islam. ... Persecution of Pagans includes the loss of human rights under the law or through individual hate crimes for people who practise or who might be thought to practise paganism. ... Persecution of members of the Rastafari movement, a group founded in Jamaica in the early 1930s and who worship Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia as Almighty God, has been fairly continuous since the movement began but nowadays is particularly concerning their spiritual use of cannabis, an illegal drug almost... Many adherents of Roman religion have been persecuted, mainly by Christians. ... A Sikh man wearing a turban The adherents of Sikhism are called Sikhs. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... The persecution of Zoroastrians has been common since the fall of the Sassanid Empire and the rule of Umayyad Arab empire that replaced it. ... Arabic ( or just ) is the largest living member of the Semitic language family in terms of speakers. ... Sharia (Arabic شريعة also Sharia, Shariah or Syariah) is traditional Islamic law. ... Political Ideologies Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box:      This article is about political Islamism. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Ulema (, translit: , singular: , translit: , scholar) (Islamic clergy) refers to the educated class of Muslim scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. ...

In contrast to the legislatively-restrained police forces of secular democracies, Islamist religious police have broad and arbitrary discretionary powers of surveillance and entry to property, detention and interrogation of suspects, and, in some places, summary judgment and execution of punishment for perceived violations of Sharia. While nominally tasked with disciplining Muslims, in less-tolerant regimes such religious police invest themselves with the authority to harass and persecute non-Muslim dhimmi second-class citizens, "guest workers", and kafir or infidels into converting to Islam.^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]} This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... There is also a collection of Hadith called Sahih Muslim A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم, Persian: Mosalman or Mosalmon Urdu: مسلمان, Turkish: Müslüman, Albanian: Mysliman, Bosnian: Musliman) is an adherent of the religion of Islam. ... This article is about dhimmi in the context of Islamic law. ... Second class citizen is an informal term used to describe a person who is discriminated against or generally treated unequally within a state or other political jurisdiction. ... Foreign farm worker, New York A foreign worker (also: guest worker or economic migrant), is a person who works in a country other than the one of which he or she is a citizen. ... The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ... An infidel (literally, one without faith) is one who doubts or rejects central tenets of a religion, especially those regarding its deities. ... Islam (Arabic:  ) is a monotheistic religion based upon the teachings of Muhammad, a 7th century Arab religious and political figure. ...

Etymology

"Mutawwa'în" (plural; sing. mutawwa') originally referred solely to Saudi Arabia's infrastructure of proselytization and enforcement of Wahhabist tenets; but the phonetic romanization "mutaween" has gained increasing use as an umbrella term indicating any religious-policing organization in an Islamic nation with at least some government recognition or deference. This may range from official state bureaucracies to unabashed terrorist enforcers aligned to powerful local clerics (e.g., the Komité Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp and more militant Basij and Pasejis ^[14] all simultaneously exist in Iran). The English language word proselytism is derived ultimately from the Greek language prefix pros (towards) and the verb erchomai (to come). ... Wahhabism (Arabic: الوهابية, Wahabism, Wahabbism) is the name given to Muslims who practice the theology taught by the heretic Muhammed Ibn Abdul Wahhab. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of the sounds of human speech. ... In linguistics, romanization (or Latinization, also spelled romanisation or Latinisation) is the representation of a word or language with the Roman (Latin) alphabet, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system. ... An umbrella term is a word that provides a superset or grouping of related concepts, also called a hypernym. ... Basij (also Bassij or Baseej, Persian: ‎), is an Islamic Republic paramilitary force that was founded by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in November of 1979 to provide volunteers for human wave attacks in the Iran-Iraq War. ...

Recently (2005), "mutaween" has appeared to describe the enforcement of Sharia by autonomous groups within Muslim enclaves located inside secular nations^[15][16], and has also entered the lexicon of blogosphere slang as a sarcastic pejorative describing politicized, non-Islamic religious groups.^[17] Look up lexicon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Blogosphere is the collective term encompassing all blogs as a community or social network. ... Slang is the use of highly informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speakers dialect or language. ... Sarcasm from Greek σαρκασμός (sarkasmos), mockery, sarcasm is sneering, jesting, or mocking a person, situation or thing. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with pejoration. ...

Religious police were very active and powerful in Afghanistan during the 1996-2001 reign of the Taliban, which also established a Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, Based at least in part on the Saudi mutaween, although commonly referred to as "munkrat" not "mutaween", the police enforcement of Sharia was one of the main activities of the Taliban regime and even stricter than that of the Saudi Mutaween.^[18] The Taliban (Pashto: , students or seekers of knowledge) are a fundamentalist Sunni Muslim and ethnic Pashtun movement that ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, when their leaders were removed from power by American aerial bombardment and Northern Alliance ground forces. ... The Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV) is a Saudi Arabian police force meant to prevent religious crimes. ... Sharia (Arabic: transliteration: ) is the body of Islamic law. ...

Mutaween in Saudi Arabia

The Saudi Arabian Mutaween are tasked with enforcing Sharia as defined by the government; purportedly the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice "comprises more than 3,500 officers in addition to thousands of volunteers...often accompanied by a police escort" who have the power to arrest unrelated males and females caught socializing, enforce Islamic dress-codes, prayer schedules, and Muslim dietary laws prohibiting the consumption or sale of alcoholic beverages and pork, and seize banned consumer products and media regarded as un-Islamic (such as CDs/DVDs of various Western musical groups, television shows and film). Other tasks are: persecution of homosexuality, prostitution and checking store closures during the prayer time. Additionally, they actively prevent the practice or proselytizing of other religions within Saudi Arabia, where such is banned.^[19][20] The Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV) is a Saudi Arabian police force meant to prevent religious crimes. ... Muslim dietary laws provide a set of rules as to what Muslims eat in their diet. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Two halves of pork being delivered Pork is the culinary name for meat from pigs. ...

One Western celebration the Mutaween have developed some notoriety for suppressing is 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 religion police bans the sale of red roses, red stuffed animals, red greeting cards and other red gift items, report store oners. Such items are confiscated, and those selling them subject to prosecution. ^[21][22] February 14 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.^[23] Location of the Red Sea The Red Sea is an inlet of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. ... Seaport, a painting by Claude Lorrain, 1638 The Port of Wellington at night. ... Jeddah (also Jedda, Jiddah, or Juddah) is a city in in western Saudi Arabia, on the Red Sea. ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ...

There is ca. 3500 members of the religion police in Saudi Arabia, who are employed in direct order of command of King Abdullah. The religion police is often present with the regular police, but can also patrol without police escort. The Saudi mutaween recently launched a website on which un-Islamic behavior can be reported. ^{[24][25][26][27]} 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. ...

A notorious incident attributed to the Saudi mutaween occurred on March 11, 2002, when they prevented schoolgirls from escaping a burning school in Mecca -- because the girls were not wearing headscarves and abayas (black robes). Fifteen girls died and 50 were injured as a result. There was widespread public criticism afterwards, both internationally and within Saudi Arabia itself. [1] March 11 is the 70th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (71st in leap years). ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ...

There is also widespread criticism of flogging as a means of punishment. ^{[28][29][30][31]} Whipping on a post Flagellation is the act of whipping (Latin flagellum, whip) the human body. ...

See also

• Apostasy
• Dhimmi
• Foreign worker
• Politics of Saudi Arabia
• The Religious Policeman
• Sharia
• Wahhabism

Apostasy (from Greek αποστασία, meaning a defection or revolt, from απο, apo, away, apart, στασις, stasis, standing) is a term generally employed to describe the formal renunciation of ones religion, especially if the motive is deemed unworthy. ... This article is about dhimmi in the context of Islamic law. ... Foreign farm worker, New York A foreign worker (also: guest worker or economic migrant), is a person who works in a country other than the one of which he or she is a citizen. ... 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. ... The Religious Policeman is a weblog written by an anonymous Saudi Arabian man who writes under the pseudonym of Alhamedi Alanezi. ... Sharia (Arabic: transliteration: ) is the body of Islamic law. ... Wahhabism (Arabic: الوهابية, Wahabism, Wahabbism) is the name given to Muslims who practice the theology taught by the heretic Muhammed Ibn Abdul Wahhab. ...

References and notes

April 10 is the 100th day of the year (101st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... May 2 is the 122nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (123rd in leap years). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... February 18 is the 49th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... shelby was here 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• "A Catholic Indian priest had just celebrated mass in a private house April 5, 2006, when seven religious policemen (muttawa) broke into the house. The Saudi religious police are well known for their ruthlessness; they often torture believers of other religions who are arrested. AsiaNews sources said there were around 400,000 Indian Catholics in Saudi Arabia who were denied pastoral care. Catholic foreigners in the country number at least one million: none of them can participate in mass while they are in Saudi Arabia. Catechism for their children – nearly 100,000 – is banned." AsiaNews, April 10, 2006
• "Saudi police 'stopped' fire rescue" BBC, March 15, 2002
• The Saudi Media Debates Flogging by the Saudi Religious Police Middle East Media Research Institute, January 19, 2004
• Saudis Arrest Christians For Spreading 'Poison' NY Sun, May 2, 2005
• Inside Saudi Arabia
• "Saudi minister rebukes religious police", BBC, November 4, 2002
• Website of Saudi Mutaween (Arabic)
• The Religious Policeman