Waheed Al-Ghamdi
Many Saudis travel to neighboring countries to watch movies at cinemas there. They love movies but are against having cinemas in the Kingdom. Of course, their attitudes are contradictory. However, they represent a mainstream point of view and prefer to join the crowd instead of standing out. They do not want to be different, even if deep inside they do not agree with certain things.
Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Haia) walk inside malls during prayer times urging shopkeepers to close and go to the mosque for prayers. Deep down they know that some shopkeepers stay inside their shops and do not go to the mosque. It seems that for the Haia closing a shop and halting business during prayer is more important than performing the actual prayer. The Haia members want to see shops closed during prayers and want to preserve this custom regardless of whether or not people perform their prayers. What is important is to let everyone see that when the prayer is called, all shops close. They want people to think that Saudi society is pure and clean and that Saudi people are religious.
Clearly, such behavior is meant to preserve the religious aspect and aura of society rather than raise people’s levels of spirituality. In other words, the privacy and special characteristics of Saudi society will be protected against all challenges facing it. It seems that with regard to cinemas in the Kingdom, those who are in opposition are virtuous people who possess positive ethics and morals. However, the sad truth is that people who hold such contradictory viewpoints want others to believe they are religious while they are actually immoral and decadent.
It seems that the words we often hear -“do what you want but perform prayer on time”- have become permission to engage in immoral actions with a clear conscience. In other words, you would not feel guilty after an immoral action if you performed prayer on time. So as long as you perform prayer at the mosque, support the ban on cinemas, love religious scholars and dawah activists and are against the Westernization of society, you will be embraced by society and will not be alienated or ostracized. But if you go against the majority, you will not be accepted even if you are a moral person who has ethics.
We need to reconsider the logic we employ in judging things related to religion. Our double-standard culture and social contradictions should be fixed to free our next generation from contradictory values so that it can focus on building a strong future for the country.
