Posted on 03/15/2002 6:47:01 AM PST by veronica
"Saudi Arabia's religious police are reported to have forced schoolgirls back into a blazing building because they were not wearing Islamic headscarves and black robes."
So begins a report today by England's Telegraph Group Ltd., publishers of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph.
The report quotes Saudi newspapers to the effect that scuffles broke out between firemen and members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice when the latter tried to keep the girls inside a burning school in Mecca.
Fifteen girls were killed as they stampeded to escape from the blazing building in the holy Muslim city. The Telegraph reported that a civil defense officer said that he saw three members of the religious police "beating young girls to prevent them from leaving the school because they were not wearing the abaya."
Saudi Arabia's Prince Abdullah clarified last night that his latest peace proposal includes "normalized relations," and not merely peace, between the entire Arab world and Israel. Israel must merely withdraw to the pre-1967 lines, including from the Temple Mount, the Old City of Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, the cities of Maaleh Adumim, Ariel, and Efrat (Gush Etzion), and all of Judea, Samaria, Gaza, and the Golan.
Has any nation been able to ward off the plague of Muslims? Are there any success stories out there? Were the Crusaders the last to stop this onslaught of evil?
Reading that made me puke!
And yet the only Religious Police to be found in America are not Christians but the Atheist Secular Humanists who use the power of the govt. to enforce their atheism on the rest of us.
Saudi Arabia's religious police stopped schoolgirls from leaving a blazing building because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress, according to Saudi newspapers. In a rare criticism of the kingdom's powerful "mutaween" police, the Saudi media has accused them of hindering attempts to save 15 girls who died in the fire on Monday.
About 800 pupils were inside the school in the holy city of Mecca when the tragedy occurred. 15 girls died in the blaze and more than 50 others were injured. According to the al-Eqtisadiah daily, firemen confronted police after they tried to keep the girls inside because they were not wearing the headscarves and abayas (black robes) required by the kingdom's strict interpretation of Islam.
One witness said he saw three policemen "beating young girls to prevent them from leaving the school because they were not wearing the abaya". The Saudi Gazette quoted witnesses as saying that the police - known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice - had stopped men who tried to help the girls and warned "it is a sinful to approach them".
The father of one of the dead girls said that the school watchman even refused to open the gates to let the girls out. "Lives could have been saved had they not been stopped by members of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice," the newspaper concluded.
Relatives' anger
Families of the victims have been incensed over the deaths. Most of the victims were crushed in a stampede as they tried to flee the blaze. The school was locked at the time of the fire - a usual practice to ensure full segregation of the sexes.
The religious police are widely feared in Saudi Arabia. They roam the streets enforcing dress codes and sex segregation, and ensuring prayers are performed on time. Those who refuse to obey their orders are often beaten and sometimes put in jail.
I'll say an extra rosary to Mary, the Mother of God, in hopes that the Jewish homesteaders in the West Bank and their Palestinine brothers will find the path to peace.
I cannot for the life of me imagine why Islamic males hate(and that is the proper word) women so much. That such barbarism not only exists in the 21st century, but actually controls one of the Earth's most valuable resources, must be some kind of cosmic mistake of history. I used to call it a joke of history, but I'm not laughing now.
My heart goes out to these unfortunate angels. In words they would have understood, "Peace be with you".
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