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The word mutaween (Arabic: المطوعين muṭawiʿin; variant English spellings: mutawwain, muttawa, mutawallees, mutawa’ah, mutawi’, mutawwa') most literally means "volunteers" in the Arabic language,[1] and is commonly used as a casual term for the government-authorized or government-recognized religious police (or clerical police) of Saudi Arabia.
More recently the term has gained use as an umbrella term outside the Arabic-speaking world to indicate religious-policing organizations in Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia and the former Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan with at least some government recognition or deference which enforce varied interpretations of Sharia law. The concept is thought to have originated from Wahabbis in Saudi Arabia.[2]
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"Mutawwa'în" (plural; sing. mutawwa') originally was a casual synonym for the religious police of Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, the formal short term for the Saudi religious police is هيئة "hay'ah" which is Arabic for "commission" and is a shortened version of "the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices" which serves as the infrastructure of proselytization and enforcement of Islamic tenets.
In the Muslim Arab world the more generally traditional meaning of mutawwa is "pious man" and generally refers to any Muslim man who "volunteers" to adopt all the orthodoxies of Islam, including the non-compulsory ones such as praying superogatory (sunnah, referring to the non-binding practises of Prophet Muhammad) prayers (salat) or giving more charity (sadaqah in addition to the mandatory zakat). Consequently many native Arab speakers will use "mutawwa" simply to refer to any orthodox Muslim.
The Mutaween in Saudi Arabia are tasked with enforcing Sharia as defined by the government, specifically by the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV). The Mutaween of the CPVPV consists of "more than 3,500 officers in addition to thousands of volunteers...often accompanied by a police escort." They have the power to arrest unrelated males and females caught socializing, anyone engaged in homosexual behavior or prostitution; to enforce Islamic dress-codes, and store closures during the prayer time. They enforce Muslim dietary laws, prohibit the consumption or sale of alcoholic beverages and pork, and seize banned consumer products and media regarded as anti-Islamic (such as CDs/DVDs of various Western musical groups, television shows and film which has insults on the Islamic law or Islam itself). Additionally, they actively prevent the practice or proselytizing of other religions within Saudi Arabia, where they are banned.[3][4]
Among the things the Mutaween have been criticized or ridiculed for include, use of flogging to punish violators,[5][6] banning Valentines Day gifts,[7][8] arresting priests for saying Mass,[9] and being staffed by "ex-convicts whose only job qualification was that they had memorized the Qur'an in order to reduce their sentences."[10]
Perhaps the most serious and widely criticized incident attributed to them occurred on March 11, 2002, when they prevented schoolgirls from escaping a burning school in Mecca, because the girls were not wearing headscarves and abayas (black robes), and not accompanied by a male guardian. Fifteen girls died and 50 were injured as a result. Widespread public criticism followed, both internationally and within Saudi Arabia.[11]
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".[12]
The muttaween are also known to welcome tip-offs from individuals, paying money for information leading to the disclosure of behaviour regarded as illegal. For example, restaurant staff have been known to inform the Mutaween about visiting couples suspected to be on a date and not to be married.
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