Islamic religious police

Islamic religious police (also mutaween) is the police force responsible for the enforcement of sharia in some Muslim-majority countries.

Names

The word mutaween (Arabic: المطوعين‎ muṭawwiʿīn; 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. It was originally a casual synonym for the religious police of Saudi Arabia. The formal short term for the Saudi religious police is هيئة "hay'ah".

More recently the term has gained use as an umbrella term outside the Arabic-speaking world to indicate religious-policing organizations with at least some government recognition or deference which enforce varied interpretations of Sharia law. The concept is thought to have originated from Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia.[2] However, the use of religious police was prevalent during Taliban rule as a means to promote their fundamentalist interpretation of Deobandi Islam

Activities by country

Saudi Arabia

The Mutaween in Saudi Arabia are tasked with enforcing Sharia as defined by the government, specifically by the Committee for the Promotion 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 material contrary to Sharia 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 fifty 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]

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

Taliban police in a pickup truck patrolling a street in Herat, in July 2001.

Afghanistan's Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice was first instituted by the 1992 Rabbani regime, and adopted by the Taliban when they took power in 1996.[13] It was closed when the Taliban was ousted, but the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Afghanistan reinstated it in 2003.[14] In 2006 the Karzai regime submitted draft legislation to create a new department, under the Ministry for Haj and Religious Affairs, devoted to the "Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice".[13] Radio Free Europe quoted many Afghans who greeted news of the draft with alarm.

Other countries

Islamic religious police forces outside of Saudi Arabia include:

Iran

In Iran, Basiji act as "morality police" in towns and cities by "enforcing the wearing of the hijab; arresting women for violating the dress code; prohibiting male-female fraternization; monitoring citizens' activities; confiscating satellite dishes and `obscene` material; intelligence gathering; and even harassing government critics and intellectuals. Basij volunteers also act as bailiffs for local courts."[16]

The "Islamic State" (IS)

The militant group known as IS has employed the use of religious police in areas under its control, commonly known as the Hisbah.[17]

See also

References and notes

  1. ↑ Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic by Hans Wehr, edited by J. M. Cowan, 4th edition (1994, ISBN 0-87950-003-4), p. 670.
  2. ↑ Rashid, Ahmed (2001). Taliban (1st Pan ed.). London: Pan Books. p. 105. ISBN 0-330-49221-7.
  3. ↑ "SAUDI ARABIA Catholic priest arrested and expelled from Riyadh – Asia News". Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  4. ↑ "BBC NEWS – Middle East – Saudi minister rebukes religious police". Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  5. ↑ "The Saudi Media Debates Flogging by the Saudi Religious Police". MEMRI – The Middle East Media Research Institute. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  6. ↑ Saudi Arabia: Gross human rights abuses against women | Amnesty International
  7. ↑ "Valentine's Day in Saudi Arabia by Stephen Schwartz & Irfan al-Alawir 03/05/2007, Volume 012, Issue 24". Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  8. ↑ "200 Arrested in Mina for Celebrating Valentine's Day", Arab News, February 18, 2004
  9. ↑ Catholic priest arrested and expelled from Riyadh, April 10, 2006 , AsiaNews
  10. ↑ Wright, Lawrence, Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright, NY, Knopf, 2006, p.149
  11. ↑ "Saudi police 'stopped' fire rescue", BBC, 15 March 2002
  12. ↑ "Morality Police under Pressure", Arab Reform Bulletin, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, July 2007.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Golnaz Esfandiari (18 July 2006). "Afghanistan: Proposed Morality Department Recalls Taliban Times". Radio Free Europe. Retrieved 28 October 2008. mirror
  14. ↑ Claudio Franco (7 December 2004). "Despite Karzai election, Afghan conservatives soldier on". Eurasianet. Retrieved 4 August 2008. mirror
  15. ↑ Packer, George (11 September 2006). "The Moderate Martyr". The New Yorker. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
  16. ↑ "Iran's Basij Force – The Mainstay Of Domestic Security. January 15, 2009". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  17. ↑ "Life Under ISIS Religious Police is Brutal and Merciless". August 2014. Retrieved 2015.

External links

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