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| Arabia |
| Letter #6 from Saudi Arabia: The infamous muttawa |
| 2005-01-19 |
| Posted by:ed |
| #5 Lol, VDH gets very close indeed to the heart of the mutawas. In one respect he's wrong: there are some self-appointed flakes running around, but the mutawas are official - they work for the Ministry of Public Morality, at least that was the way it was listed in the one and only telephone book I saw over there in 1992. Anonymoose, your heart's in the right place, but you're spitting in the wind. These guys have real power - and they can disappear your ass, just as they did the Filipino, and no one, including the US State Dept, can find you. We had our wasta guy, too, and he would find our lost sheep, as well. Once one of the guys was planning to go over to Bahrain with a group on Thursday morning (Thurs / Fri is their "weekend")... he never showed up. The matter of his whereabouts was handed over to Mr Fixit and we went our way. We found out later he had to be bailed out of jail. He had missed a highway turnoff - and it can be 50+ clicks between them - easy - and still being inebriated (he was coming home from an el cid party, lol), he had pulled a U-turn and headed back - on the wrong side of the highway. Usually this isn't a big deal over there (lol, honest!) but he had the bad luck to encounter a car in the middle of nowhere that had to dodge him - and yes, it contained a passle of mutawas. So he was cooling his heels under their supervision when our wastaman located him. The lucky dickhead. You can't do anything or have anything which is overtly religious, except Muslim stuff, of course. Christmas tree with lights that can be seen from outside? Lol! They bang on your door (break it down if you're not home) and drag it out, then stuff it in the first dumpster they can find. If you're an Aramcon (official Aramco employee, not a mere contractor), and this was inside Dhahran Camp, it's probably just a warning. If this happens outside, in the real world, you'll go to jail. A friend went over there in the mid-70's and had, because he was a physicist, a picture of Albert Einstein in his household shipment. He was summoned down to Customs and pointedly asked who the person was in the framed photo. Well, their "nose" for picking out Jooos was pretty damned accurate, heh. They knew something was Joooish about Einstein. My friend, an Indian who was to be a high-ranking member on the Aramco Chief Scientist's staff, told them it was his uncle. They looked at him. Then looked at the photo. Then back at my friend. This went on for a couple of long silent moments. Then he looked at his paperwork, again, and must've realized my friend was at least semi-important and, with a growl, threw the picture back into the box and told him to get out. It's their world. It sucks like nothing you can imagine till it's been shoved down your throat. Now about that Republic of Eastern Arabia... |
| Posted by: .com 2005-01-19 4:29:04 PM |
| #4 I liked the ice cream story. I'll bet muttawa man and his cop buddy sprinted to the nearest mens room for at least a two man circle jerk after watching that one. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-01-19 3:57:05 PM |
| #3 These guys are sweeties that prevented the girls from escaping a fire at a Girl's School becuase they did not have the proper coverings to be out in public. I want to say about 20 girls died. Would Allah assume this was the correct thing to do or murder? Saving a life or covering your face with a headscarf. Islam is really F$%#ed Up! |
| Posted by: Rightwing 2005-01-19 12:36:56 PM |
| #2 The way you deal with thugs like this is with counter-thugs. Irregulars are never highly regarded by the official police, who often relish their downfall. So if someone were to set up a dedicated and professional psyop and assassination campaign against these brownshirts, their organization would disintigrate in short order--they inherently being cowards and bullies. One could even play on their superstitions, making them *in particular* seem to be prey for demons and djinn, supposedly dispatched by Allah to punish them and their organization for "sinfullness" and "vice". This would also help to undercut their political support. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-01-19 11:32:36 AM |
| #1 The muttawa—or religious police—are a self-elected goon squad of fundamentalists who surveil the Magic Kingdom's inhabitants, particularly its expatriates. The purpose of their scrutiny is to ensure conformity to their own warped, narrow-minded interpretation of Islam. Their scrutiny is often asinine and always absurd... Pretty much says it all. |
| Posted by: John Q. Citizen 2005-01-19 10:40:02 AM |