This odd little story runs in Saudi Gazette/Okaz. It makes me wonder what distinguishes the behavior of this man and that of the many officers of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, who seem to be doing much the same. The man here saw ‘suspicious’ behavior and reported it to the police. For his efforts, he is fined and sentenced to jail. In many of the cases involving the Haya, they seem to be responding to suspicious behavior and, as they no longer have detention power, report it to the police.
Now surely they might be information missing from this story. The man may have said more than is reported. He may have lapsed into some sort of racist complaint for which he is being duly punished. But without those details, I’m at a loss to differentiate his behavior from that of the Commission. Is it, perhaps, that he was usurping the role of the Commission? Can anyone in the Kingdom shed any light on this?
‘Nosy parker’ gets month behind bars
Abdul Karim Al-Murabbi’JEDDAH – A Saudi man who reported a “suspicious” person he believed might have been connected with the disappearance of two Qatari children at the Grand Mosque in Makkah two months ago has been branded a “nosy parker” by a judge and sentenced to one month in jail.
Bandar Al-Khazmari said he read about the children’s disappearance three months ago while at home in Jeddah, and when that night he saw a “black man with two white-skinned children” – fitting the description carried by media reports – near a bachelors’ residence block he reported the man to the police.
Officers attended the scene and took the individual away, Al-Khazmari said, but he was taken aback to receive a police summons a few days later following a complaint made against him by the man he had reported to the police, now seeking compensation for what transpired to be groundless suspicions.
The District Court judge hearing the case described Al-Khamzari as “poking his nose in other people’s affairs”, and sentenced him to a month’s jail and a SR5,000 fine.
“Is this what a do-gooder gets for trying to do his civic duty?!” exclaimed Al-Khamzari, who says he intends to appeal.
The two missing children were eventually found late July in Qassim, after being missing for 45 days. – Okaz/SG
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
October:07:2009 - 09:04
Sounds like a “publicizing” violation, a vague Islamic principle that’s kinda like defamation except that the truth isn’t the best defense.
Even if allegations are truthful you can still be in trouble for defaming somebody who is otherwise being discrete about his sinful behvior. (Abdul Jawad just learned that his indiscretion against his own bad behavior just got him five years in prison and lashes.)
The Hai’a technically are supposed to patrol the public sphere for overt infractions, not engage in sting operations to entrap discrete infractions, especially done in the privacy of your own home.
This is one reason why domestic abuse is a problem to enforce because enforcing it also violates the reputation of the family, so people are very hesitant to expose themselves to potential “publicizing” violations in this regard.
Yes, determining when somebody should get in trouble for defaming another person (even if the allegations are true!) is extremely subjective and opaque; religion tends to be that way, which is why it makes for terrible legal code. When there were no legal codes, religion was the best alternative. Today we have a much better alternative, called the system of laws, law enforcement and the judiciary. Combining a secular legal system with old religious text creates more problems than it fixes.
October:07:2009 - 18:49
It’s what what people do all over the world: especially in relation to missing children. There are always numerous reports of people who think they have spotted them, mostly wrongly.
But what were two Qatari children doing in Qassim? Who found them? How did they get there? where werre they staying? Why were they reported as missing?
October:08:2009 - 10:19
Not surprising, because I have spoken to a few people (some Saudi) who are frightened to call the police to report anything. I have heard, “I’m afraid I’ll get arrested!” There must be some truth behind that.