Both Asharq Alawsat and Arab News runs pieces that question whether the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice have got their eyes on the proper target of their attention. Both note that the Saudi religious police seem to pay attention to minutia while missing the larger and more danger issues.
It’s interesting that the critics make it clear that they follow Islamic practice strenuously. They point out, though, that the Haya seems to not understand what the real problems are.
In Arab News, the Chairman of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry takes the Commission to task for railing about men and women working side by side. Meanwhile, they seem to be unaware of the depth of problems like corruption. I suspect that learning to identify corruption is just outside the training the religious police receive. It’s far harder to recognize, far harder to investigate. Could the Commission just be lazy?
JCCI chief to imams: Focus on corruption, not women
P.K. Abdul Ghafour | Arab NewsJEDDAH: Veteran Saudi businessman and Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) Chairman Saleh Kamil has lambasted religious leaders for making the mingling of the sexes a big issue, adding that Islam has not prohibited unrelated men and women from interacting but rather prohibits them from going into secluded places together.
“Islam has not banned the mingling of sexes,” Kamil said in comments published by Al-Madinah Arabic daily on Wednesday. “It bans a man and woman (who are unrelated) being alone in a place. We have been witnessing men and women doing tawaf around the Holy Kaaba together and this has been taking place since the time of the Prophet (pbuh).”
He urged them to speak against issues that concern the public, such as corruption, bribery and injustice. However, Kamil insisted that women coming to the chamber should wear proper Islamic dress (hijab).
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In Asharq Alawsat, Muhammad Diyab writes that by confusing ‘sorcery’ and ‘black magic’ with corruption, the Commission both heightens their apparent strength of, while doing nothing to actually confront corruption and fraud.
In Order Not To Corrupt the Lives of Others
Muhammad DiyabRarely does a day go by that we do not read a news article in a Saudi newspaper about the arrest of an individual or a group allegedly practicing black magic by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice [CPVPV]. It is correct that this institution is confronting the fraud and deception of those who claim to be able to be able to practice black magic, but the large number of individuals arrested on this charge causes one to wonder;
Why have we become the target of such gangs that specialize in deception and fraud?
The answer to this question can be seen in that the arrest of those allegedly practicing black magic is useless unless this is accompanied by negating the reasons for the ignorance that causes some people to resort to believing those who claim to practice black magic. Unfortunately it is this ignorance that caused these gangs to appear and spread corruption in the first place. This may require clarification and the issuance of examples previously published in some Saudi newspapers. For example, there was the news of the insane businessman who was defrauded by an alleged black magic practitioner who claimed that he could arrange the businessman’s marriage to the daughter of a djinn King, and that the businessman would be rewarded with 10 billion riyals during his first year of marriage. The businessman paid this black magic practitioner a dowry of one million and one hundred thousand riyals. There was also the news about a businessman who paid 210 million riyals to a gang of fraudsters and conmen [posing as black magicians] in order to obtain a high-ranking economic post. The security authorities were only able to retrieve 10 million riyals out of a total of 210 million riyals paid by this insane businessman.
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in Fighting Corruption”
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February:05:2010 - 18:10
Now I don’t much about Saudi here, but the general experience is that moral police (in Iran, or in the old communist bloc) itself is corrupt, because the job is corrupting.
February:05:2010 - 18:21
NielsC,
It has been my experience that the Religious police in Saudi is not corrupt. In reality they are very iffecient in what they do and that’s the problem. The issue is what they do and how I, for one, as Saudi see it as lacking.
They officially “promote virtue and fight vice”. Now that is a very broad subject which many Saudis view as a good thing if they actually expanded their role to issues that are not just the daly segregation of sexes. We would like them, as the article states, to fight corruption, to help in the fight against terrorism etc.
February:06:2010 - 04:24
Oh my. The first article was well written! It was very coherent and Kamil made very valid points.
The second article was well written as well. I do wonder though that if somehow by magic some people end up in high positions of authority. Come on guys its got to be magic. LMFAO
This is an embarressing sign to those in power to take importance notice of…”People believe you are there because you have MAGIC and that you have paid millions for it.” OMG Again LOL
February:10:2010 - 14:49
This is part of the Devil’s Truce between the religious extremists and the ruling family. Going after corruption would be a breach of this truce. I really think it’s that simple: for the Hai’a to do what it wants to do it can’t be going around stepping on the toes of government officials because eventually you would be stepping on the toes of The Connected. Much easier to ignore that so they can go around condemning Blackberry phones and yelling at women in malls.