MAHMOUD AHMAD
Everyone was tuned in to the recent incident where four members from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia or religious police) attacked a British man and his Saudi wife.
The incident was triggered when the British man and his wife were paying for their groceries at a checkout point manned by a women in a Riyadh supermarket and were queried why they were on that particular counter. The Haia members approached the British man and his wife and began harassing them for opting to use that particular checkout.
The Haia members followed the couple outside the supermarket to the parking lot in the mall and kept arguing to stoke the incident. On reaching the parking lot, a member from the four in the group jumped on the British man and began hitting him on the back.
That particular action was caught on mobile camera, and the video was widely circulated. It showed the wife defending her husband and slapping the commission member, who then attacked her with a kick to her stomach, according to her statement in one of the TV programs.
I am not going to defend the action of the members of the religious police as I believe that they were wrong with their boorish behavior and caused an unnecessary scene and damaged the reputation of the commission. The case was closed when the commission formally apologized to the British man and his wife and transferred the members involved to administrative jobs outside the capital city of Riyadh.
In all fairness, the religious police has been formed by the government with a task to protect virtue and prevent vice. The commission, despite many incidents involving its members that even resulted in some deaths, have done great work in cracking down on prostitution dens, liquor factories, blackmailers, arresting embezzlers and sometimes arresting drug dealers, in cooperation with other security departments.
People trusted the religious police more when reporting suspicious activities at homes where people conducted illicit operations of either distilling/selling liquor, running a prostitution ring or peddling drugs.
Women, who were blackmailed either for money or improper relations, preferred first to go to the Haia (religious police), who immediately would investigate the case and solve the issue, sometimes resulting in the arrest of the blackmailer.
I remember, more than seven years ago, when sitting with a media official of the Haia in Madina, that the official had a beef with society. He told me then “how society sometimes does injustice to them (Haia men)”. I quote him: “Instead of focusing on our positive achievements, they trash us and hate us because of the actions of few individuals or few incidents.”
There are some who passionately dislike the religious police and they were extremely active on social media highlighting the recent incident against the British citizen and his wife. There were even some voices that asked for Haia to be shut down. Others went to the extreme of describing them as ISIS members.
It is really ironic that people are biased and divided over the religious police. We have one group that supports them no matter what and even describe those attacking them as attacking the guardians of Islam and that is wrong. Then there’s the other group that is prone to vilify the religious police come what may.
They are a department, like all other departments, that makes mistakes and also achieves some positive deeds. They should be held responsible for their actions and accountable for their mistakes while heaping praise for their good work. But in the process they should aspire always for improvement.
I would like to ask, what would be our reaction if a Saudi man had been attacked in the same manner in public in a foreign country? There would have been an outrage. I was glad that many took to the social media to condem this incident and voice their support to the couple. Any non-Saudi in our land is under our protection. The correct way for the religious police to have dealt with this recent incident would have been to alert the security at the shopping mall and allowed them to deal with the matter because they know the rules of the place.
As for those who are hunting for the mistakes of the religious police I say show a little fairness. Every government department has its positives and negatives. These people should know that the action of members does not represent a whole organization. The commission was quick to respond and punish the members and apologize to the victims in this case.
The same people did not criticize the passport department when a clip, showing a passport department member hitting people with his belt inside a department branch, was circulated a year ago. At that time these people rushed to the department’s defense by saying “it was the action of one person and the whole department should not be criticized for it.”
I would like to say here that some incidents were attributed to the religious police, although they had nothing to do with it. Anyone with a beard is immediately labeled a member of the religious police. Sometimes these people are acting on their own and they are not part of any organization, yet people are quick to label them as religious police and start trashing the group’s reputation.
As for the commission members, they need to go back to the root of their job, which is guiding and advising people in a good manner. I quote a verse from the holy Qur’an, “Call thou (all mankind) unto thy Sustainer’s path with wisdom and goodly exhortation, and argue with them in the most kindly manner”.
The recent incident, however, has given an opportunity for the head of the commission to reform the Haia. He should take the extreme measures of flushing out violent members from the department and replace them with more educated ones.
