JEDDAH â Sheikh Ibrahim ibn Abdullah Al-Ghaith, president of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, has admitted that his officials may have made mistakes. At the same time, however, he said his organization had been the victim of false allegations. Al-Ghaith said the commission was making strenuous efforts to improve its image by providing training for its staff. He said the commissionâs headquarters as well as its 13 branches all over the country make great efforts to select the best qualified personnel to carry out its Islamic mission. âFor several years we have been appointing intelligent and knowledgeable university graduates,â he added. âThe commissionâs officials are human beings and may make mistakes in their judgments. But at the same time, the commission provides intensive courses so that its staff may improve their standards and performance,â he explained.
However, he pointed out that many accusations against the commission were untrue. He denied reports that the commission officials had beaten up individuals. âSome mistakes might have been made by our staff but many stories about us are false. We are human beings and so may make mistakes. At the same time we will not allow false accusations to be made against us,â he said. Al-Ghaith said the officials who made mistakes would be punished in accordance with civil service regulations.
"And no teevee for you for a week, young man!"
"I don't watch teevee. It's un-Islamic."
He said he always encouraged Islamic scholars to listen, open their hearts to young people and hold dialogues with them. âWe have conducted a number of summer courses for young people in Jeddah, Taif, Abha and other areas to engage them in constructive activities.â He said the commission officials had not put up any barriers between them and young people. âBut there are certain young people who are involved in immoral and illegal activities. They will not be happy with the commission when its officials arrest them in order to protect society from the consequences of their wicked actions,â he said. However, Al-Ghaith pointed out that some youths had in fact reacted positively to the commission after being released from jail. Referring to the flogging of young men arrested for flirting with girls, Al-Ghaith said such punishments were carried out with the permission of the governorates and authorities. âOur officials donât carry sticks to beat people. What we do is that we hand over people involved in immoral and illegal activities to the police. There are a lot of exaggerated reports about our organization in the press and on the Internet,â he said. Al-Ghaith said he had urged his men to deal politely with the public.
Prior to, or after flogging them?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 11:56 am ||
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Forcing the girls back into a burning building because they did not have proper face coverings is a mistake or a false accusation? There are mistakes and then there is murder.
#2
These guys are called "mutawa", and can be seen in groups of 4 or 5 with a bored looking cop hanging around. They walk around malls correcting women and young men on clothes, not praying, etc. One stopped my kids' school bus in Riyadh and all the moms had to cover up, shut up, and take verbal abuse from the guy. What jerks.
Posted by: Michael ||
05/22/2003 12:56 Comments ||
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I'd be real wary of any country that has something called the "Religious Police".
RIYADH â GCC leaders during a one-day summit here yesterday strongly condemned recent terror bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco and called for international efforts to root out terrorism. They described terrorism as âa global scourge and called for intensifying international efforts to combat and root out terrorism,â GCC Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Al-Attiya said. âSuch terrorist acts have nothing to do with Islam,â Al-Attiya said in a statement at the end of the biannual consultative summit.
"Only its practitioners do..."
The meeting was attended by Crown Prince Abdullah, King Hamad of Bahrain, Sheikh Hamad of Qatar, Sheikh Khalifa ibn Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Fahd ibn Mahmoud Al-Saeed, the deputy prime minister of Oman, and Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad, Kuwaitâs first deputy premier and foreign minister. Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, was also present.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 11:50 am ||
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Now that the Battle of Iraq is drawing down maybe planning for the Battle of the Mad-drassas can begin.
Saudi Arabia has set up a special committee of experts to promote a moderate image of Islam, Crown Prince Abdullah announced yesterday. The move seeks to uproot extremism from the country. âWe have entrusted a committee of experienced and knowledgeable people to propagate the moderate views of Islam,â Prince Abdullah told Kuwaitâs Assiyassah newspaper.
Good idea. Form a committee. That always works...
He suggested there were possible terror cells in other Arab countries. âWhat we have in Saudi Arabia also exists in abundance in all other Arab countries in the form of sleeping cells,â he said. âSome of them have risen and some others are yet to rise. So we are very worried about these countries,â he said. He called for strong and frank inter-Arab relations.
"Yeah. It ain't just us. It's just us more'n anybody else..."
He said a number of committees had been set up to implement the ideas expressed in the keynote address of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd to the Shoura Council. The king had called for improvement in the performance of government agencies. In his address, King Fahd said the government would go ahead with its reform programs, broaden the scope of popular participation and widen the scope for working women.
An image of grandmaw laying bricks in an abaya on a hot day just popped to mind. Don't know why...
Highlighting the moderate views of Islam, Prince Abdullah said he had openly criticized those scholars who follow the extremist line while giving their edicts and opinions.
Perhaps you should kill them? That'll solve that little problem...
âIslam is a complete political, social and economic system,â the crown prince said and urged Muslims to act in accordance with the true spirit of their religion.
Sounds like it's part of a balanced breakfast.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/22/2003 11:46 am ||
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Close the charities that promote hate based out of the different Saudi embassies and I'll start to believe them.
#2
We'll call the committee the COMINTERN. Yes...sounds good, Effendi!
Posted by: Brian ||
05/22/2003 12:51 Comments ||
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Form a committee and promote "image". Just the type of concrete steps we need to root out the Wahibites. Abdullah had better put his foot down, or the Royals will be a mere footnote in history in 20 years.
Posted by: Michael ||
05/22/2003 13:00 Comments ||
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Michael - can we hope for that footnote a little sooner? Maybe a year or two?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/22/2003 13:08 Comments ||
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Does this mean we can look forward to some more "The Saudis Are Our Friends" commercials? I always got a kick out of those. The ad agency that did them must still be laughing all the way to the bank.
EFL
Saudi police have arrested four more suspects linked to al-Qaida as they crack down on extremists following the bombings in Riyadh, a Western diplomat said Thursday. It was the first report of the arrests, which the diplomat said were made Tuesday. He had no details on where or how the arrests were made. Rounded up the usual suspects
Saudi officials had announced Sunday that four suspects with apparent ties to al-Qaida were arrested last week for the May 12 attacks on foreign housing complexes in Riyadh. On Tuesday, Saudi security officials said three suspected al-Qaida militants had been arrested a day earlier in the western port city of Jiddah. Later reports — denied by the Saudi interior minister — linked those three to a possible hijacking plot. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt. It's Pandemic in Soddy
"The Saudis are working very, very aggressively throughout the kingdom," the Western diplomat said, speaking on condition he not be identified. So as not to lose credibility when the show arrests end and support for Al Qaeda begins again
The diplomat said the latest arrests involved four men linked to, but not among, 19 suspects the Saudis have sought in connection with a weapons cache found in Riyadh on May 6. Interior Minister Prince Nayef has said investigators have identified three of the mangled bodies of the nine Saudi attackers as among the 19 suspects sought in the weapons cache discovery.
That would seem to leave 16 who're still ticklish...
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/22/2003 07:22 am ||
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This whole thing reminds me of the end of the book GOOD FRIDAY where the Saudi's beheaded a bunch of bad guys and someone noticed that the people being beheaded were all missing hands (aka the Saudi's rounded up victims in the local prison) and the whole thing was done for foreign consumption.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
