The
Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (abbreviated
CPVPV; هيئه الأمر بالمعروف و النهي عن المنكر in
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
and formerly called the
Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Elimination of Sin or
CAVES) is the English name of the
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia , is an Arab country and the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south...
n government bureaucracy employing "religious police" or
mutaweenThe Mutaween means "subjugated people" in Arabic is commonly used as a casual term for the government-authorized or -recognized religious police of Saudi Arabia...
(مطوعين romanized in English) to enforce Sharia Law within that Islamic nation. (See
MutaweenThe Mutaween means "subjugated people" in Arabic is commonly used as a casual term for the government-authorized or -recognized religious police of Saudi Arabia...
for a list of variant spellings and an extended description of Islamic religious police.)
Its approximately 3,500 members, and many more volunteers, patrol the streets enforcing
dress codeClothing laws vary considerably around the world.Most clothing laws concern which parts of the body must not be exposed to view; there are exceptions. These range from strict clothing laws in Islamic countries, or notably nude-favoring customs in certain countries across the globe...
s, strict
separation of men and womenSex segregation is the separation of people according to their gender.The pejorative term gender apartheid has been applied to segregation of people by gender, implying that it is sexual discrimination...
, salah prayer by Muslims during prayer times, and other behavior it believes to be commanded by Islam.
Enforcement
The religious police in Saudi Arabia are employed in direct order of command from
King Abdullah-Current monarchs:*Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, regent of Saudi Arabia since 1995 and king since 2005*Abdullah II of Jordan, king of Jordan since 1999-Previous monarchs:*Abdullah I of Jordan , king of Transjordan...
. They are tasked with enforcing Sharia as defined in Saudi Arabia. In addition to having the power to arrest anyone engaged in inappropriate contact between the sexes, fornication, or proselytizing of non-Muslim religions, they can also enforce Islamic dress-codes and store closures during the prayer time, and prohibit the consumption or sale of
alcoholic beverageAn alcoholic beverage is a drink that contains ethanol . Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits....
s. In addition to this, they actively prevent the religious practices of other religions within Saudi Arabia.
Saudi mutaween are often accompanied by the regular police, but also patrol without police escort. They recently launched a website on which un-Islamic behavior can be reported.
Among the Western practices suppressed by the Mutaween is the celebration of Valentine's Day. Condemning the festivities as a "pagan feast", Mutaween inspect hotels, restaurants, coffeehouses, and gift shops on February 14 to prevent Muslim couples from giving each other Valentines or other presents. The sale of red roses, red stuffed animals, red greeting cards and other red gift items is banned, according to store owners. These items are confiscated, and those selling them subject to prosecution.
More recently, the police have issued a decree banning the sale of dogs and cats, also seen as a sign of Western influence. The decree which applies to the
Red SeaThe Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez,...
port||-||-||-||-||-||-||-||-|}A port is a facility for receiving ships and/or transferring cargo. It is usually found at the edge of an ocean, sea, river, or lake. The best ports have deep water in channels or berths, and protection from the wind and waves...
city of Jiddah and the holy city of
MeccaMecca , sometimes spelled Makkah is the holiest meeting site of the Islamic religion. The city is modern, cosmopolitan and whilst being closed to non-Muslims is nonetheless ethnically diverse.Islamic tradition attributes the beginning of Mecca to Ishmael's descendants...
bans the sale of cats and dogs because "some youths have been buying them and parading them in public," according to a memo from the Municipal Affairs Ministry to Jiddah’s city government.
Controversy
In August 2008, a young Saudi woman who had converted to
ChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
reportedly was burnt to death after having her tongue cut out by her father, a member of the
Committee, according to AMSAmed website.
In May 2007, a man alleged to have alcohol in his home was reported by
Arab News to have been arrested and beaten to death by CPVPV members in the Al-Oraija district of
RiyadhRiyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of Riyadh Province, and belongs to the historical regions of Nejd and Al-Yamama. It is situated in the center of the Arabian Peninsula on a large plateau, and is home to 1,444,500 people, and the urban center of a...
. "The father of the deceased said that commission members continued to beat his handcuffed son, even though he was already covered in blood, until he died" at the Oraija CPVPV center in Riyadh.
Mutaween suppression of religious activity by non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia is also controversial.
Asia News alleges that "at least one million" Roman Catholics in the kingdom are being "denied pastoral care ... none of them can participate in mass while they are in Saudi Arabia .... Catechism for their children – nearly 100,000 – is banned." It reports the arrest of a Catholic priest for saying mass. On 5 April 2006 a Catholic priest, "Fr.George [Joshua] had just celebrated mass in a private house when seven religious policemen (muttawa) broke into the house together with two ordinary policemen. The police arrested the priest and another person."
One of the most widely criticized examples of mutaween enforcement of Sharia law came in March 2002, when 14 young girls died of burns or smoke asphyxiation by an
accidental fireOn March 11, 2002 a fire at a girls' school in Mecca, Saudi Arabia killed at least fourteen students. The event was especially notable due to complaints that Saudi Arabia's "religious police" stopped schoolgirls from leaving the burning building and hindered rescue workers because they were not...
that engulfed their public school in Mecca. According to the statements of parents, firemen, and the regular police forces present at the scene, the religious police forcibly prevented girls from escaping the burning school by locking the doors of the school from the outside, and barring firemen from entering the school to save the girls, beating some of the girls and civil defense personnel in the process. Mutaween would not allow the girls to escape or to be saved because they were 'not properly covered', and the mutaween did not want physical contact to take place between the girls and the civil defense forces for fear of sexual enticement. The CPVPV denied the charges of beating or locking the gates, but the incident and the accounts of witnesses were reported in Saudi newspapers such as the
Saudi GazetteSaudi Gazette is a leading English language daily newspaper published in Saudi Arabia. and is currently available as both a daily newspaper and a website....
and
Al-Iqtisaddiyya. The result was a very rare public criticism of the group.
Other accusations leveled at the CPVPV include that some of its members have been involved in political subversion, and/or are ex-convicts/prisoners who achieved Hafiz (i.e. memorized the Quran) to reduce their prison sentences. Author
Lawrence WrightLawrence Wright is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, screenwriter, staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, and fellow at the Center for Law and Security at the New York University School of Law...
has written of a conflict between the Mutaween and at least one allied imam and Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, the head of the Department of General Intelligence (
Al Mukhabarat Al A'amahThe Re'asat Al Istikhbarat Al A'amah , or the General Intelligence Presidency, GIP , is the pre-eminent intelligence agency of the government of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia....
) between 1977 and 2001. After an imam denounced a female charitable organizations run by some of Turki's sisters and accused them of being "whores" during a Friday sermon, Turki demanded and received an apology. He then "secretly began monitoring members of the muttawa. He learned that many of them were ex-convicts whose only job qualification was that they had memorized the Quran in order to reduce their sentences." But Turki believed they had become "so powerful" they "threatened to overthrow the government."
The Saudi blogger
The Religious PolicemanThe Religious Policeman is a weblog written by an anonymous blogger describing himself as a Saudi Arabian man, and writing under the pseudonym of Alhamedi Alanezi...
is a frequent critic of the group and its activities.
Reform
In May 2006 it was announced that the committee would no longer be allowed to interrogate those it arrests for behavior deemed un-Islamic. Prior to this, commission members enjoyed almost total power to arrest, detain, and interrogate those suspected of violating the Sharia..
In June 2007 the Saudi Mutaween announced "the creation of a 'department of rules and regulations' to ensure the activities of commission members comply with the law, after coming under heavy pressure for the death of two people in its custody in less than two weeks". The governmental
National Society for Human RightsThe National Society for Human Rights is a non-governmental organization based in Saudi Arabia, and was established on the 10th March 2004. It is the first independent human rights organization in Saudi Arabia, and cooperates with other international human rights organizations...
criticised the behaviour of the religious police in May 2007 in its first report since its establishment in March 2004. In May 2006 the Interior Ministry issued a decree stating that "the role of the commission will end after it arrests the culprit or culprits and hands them over to
policeA police service is a public force empowered to enforce the law and provide security through the legitimized use of force.The term is most commonly associated with police services of a state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of...
, who will then decide whether to refer them to the public prosecutor."
Time magazine ran a report about the Mutaween in August 2007. It noted that "a campaign using
text messages- Companies and organizations :* Sabooj Maroon Swapna , a fan club of Mohun Bagan AC in Kolkata, India* Southdown Motor Services, a former UK bus company* Youth Party of Slovenia, a Slovenian political party...
sent to mobile phones is calling on a million Saudis to declare that '2007 is the year of liberation.'" Despite statements of reform, the Mutaween turned down Times request for interviews.
Other similar groups
Outside Saudi Arabia, the Taliban regime, or
Islamic Emirate of AfghanistanIslamic Emirate of Afghanistan was founded in 1996 when the Taliban began their rule of Afghanistan and ended with their fall from power in 2001...
, also had a "Ministry of the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice" with a very similar religious policing function. The Taliban are thought to have borrowed the Saudi policing policy not only because they also had a strict
ShariaSharia is an Arabic word meaning ‘way’ or ‘path’. In Arabic, the collocation ‘Šarīʿat Allāh’ is traditionally used not only by Muslims, but also Christians and Jews, sometimes translating expressions such as Torat Elōhīm [תורת אלוהים] or ‘ho nómos toû theoû' '’...
law policy, but because of alleged financial and diplomatic support from Saudi Arabia.
External links