The Saudi [Im]moral Police

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Few nations are as tyrannical as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom’s official ideology ad-hears to a radical off-shout from the already conservative Islamic school of jurisprudence, the Hanbalite school (Sunni Islam has four schools of jurisprudence, the Hanbalite, named after Ahmed ibn Hanbal, is the most strict and is followed by only a very small minority of Muslims). But Saudi state doctrine does not follow the Hanbalite school per se. The clerical establishment there was born out of the writings of the Islamic fundamentalist Muhammad ibn ‘Abdual-Wahhab (1703-1792), who himself was versed in the Hanbalite doctrine but since then his teachings have formed their own school: Wahhabiyyah. It is this even more extreme form of Islam that is enforced doctrine in the Saudi Kingdom.

Wahhabiyyah prohibits the unveiling of women, entertainment such as movie theaters, women car driving, and the intermixing of unrelated sexes. It is the harsh enforcement of the latter that has once again shown just what an intolerable country Saudi Arabia is. It is the responsibility of the Saudi religious police, Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, to enforce 12th century edicts.

Recently the [Im]moral police got into a car chase trying to pin down a married couple they suspected of engaging in illicit behavior. Without any proof other than looking into their car, the overzealous police assumed that the couple was not married and thus their simultaneous presence in the car was an affront. Forcing the car into a collision, the religious fanatics then arrested the women and beat her husband. Unfortunately for Saudis such incidents are not rare and sparked no surprise among the people.

Although the Saudi Royal family occasionally issues proclamations claiming to clamp down on “excessiveness” by the religious police, nothing has been done to rein them in to any degree. And regional leaders, as in the aforementioned case, often side with their fellow extremists.

It is not that the [Im]moral police can sometimes be excessive, it is their sole existence that is excessive. Individuals are born with natural rights and as long as they are not harming anyone they should be free to live, dress and meet whomever they wish to. Their actions are not be watched over by a bunch of breaded fanatics from some previous century. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia buys a lot of media in the country in order to brand itself as an acceptable nation, but what hides behind the oil money is a backward and cruel nation where its people are consistently violated with impunity.

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