Posted on 08/24/2002 8:11:22 PM PDT by knighthawk
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia has appointed a new chief for its powerful religious police, a force that came under criticism earlier this year.
The new director of the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice is Sheik Ibrahim Abdullah al-Ghaith, said a royal decree published by the official Saudi Press Agency on Wednesday night.
Al-Ghaith succeeds Sheik Abdul Aziz al-Sayed, whose four-year term recently ended. The post is equivalent to that of a minister.
The religious police, or muttawa, are charged with ensuring that women are covered in black robes outside their homes, the sexes do not mix in public, shops close five times a day for prayers and men go to mosques for prayers.
The force came under unprecedented attack in March after 15 girls died and 50 others were wounded in a fire at a girls' school in the western city of Mecca.
Newspapers accused the muttawa of blocking rescue attempts by male firefighters and paramedics at the girls' school because some of the girls were not wearing the long dresses and head coverings required in public under Islamic sharia law.
But a government report on the fire said it was "untrue" that the muttawa had blocked rescue attempts. Interior Minister Prince Nayef defended the religious police and criticized the newspapers.
The name kinda has that Third Reich or Maoist ring to it.
Damn! I'd hoped to see OPH appointed, so his Klayman badge could get a good test-run.
When they start enforcing the rules of the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Norway, France, and California, remind me to see the humor.
Oh they'd love to have a muttawa, arresting smokers, hate-speech offenders, and anyone else who offends the "Liberal" taliban.
The Taleban's religious police was called the same. Of course this is a translation of some Arabic expression. I wonder if it's less of a mouthful in Arabic?
The treacherous two faced lying bitch has earned our hatred, and deserves to feel the wrath of a brutal American vengeance.
Semper Fi
For what it's worth: A fellow church member has a son who works in a bank in Riyahd, Saudi Arabia. On a trip back to the USA, he claimed that the original story was true and that the average Saudi knows the truth. However, the Saudi Arabian government, already reeling from bad publicity related to the revelations/connections of 9/11, was "embarrassed" (ie: humiliated...an Arabic culture no, no) and annoyed by all of the world-wide coverage that the fire-related deaths were receiving. So, they did what most Arabs in that part of the world do to save face: THEY LIED.
No one in that dictatorship-laden neck of the woods (including the grieving parents of those tragic young women) could complain or dispute the "official investigation." If the tyrants don't get them for speaking out, the religious fanatical Imams who don't like being told that they were wrong, surely would.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.