Stem Growing Tide of Work-Related Violence
Waheeb Sufi • Al-Watan

Work-related violence is a seemingly growing problem everywhere.

According to a local newspaper, an officer working for the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice shot his supervisor dead while seated at his office. The officer, who was transferred from Jeddah to Taif a few months earlier, had a history of violent behavior.

On a previous occasion the same officer had repeatedly stabbed another colleague with a knife in a mosque on a Friday, critically wounding him. The newspaper added that the policeman had felt that his colleague was responsible for his transfer.

This is a sly article from the Arabic daily Al-Watan. The piece is a generally objective look at the issue of violence in the workplace. It cites statistics from the US–but notes that American workplaces are far nicer than Saudi offices. What amounts to wielding a sharp, pointy stick, however, is the use of the religious police as the lead-in to the story! Clearly, the officer in question has issues that should have disqualified him from the position he held: two assaults? By pointing out that he was able to be gainfully employed by the mutawwa’in, the paper is scoring a serious point. I’m sure many Saudis will be amused by the example. Perhaps not the Commission, though…