Wednesday, February 13, 2008

No soup for Saudis

The Committee of the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV) is a bureaucracy appointed by the Saudi Government to "enforce" the Sharee3a Law within Saudi Arabia. It is believed that the Saudi Government had a previous agreement that the CPVPV would handle the Sharee3a Law in the Kingdom, and the Saudi Police would handle the Civil Law. Why would they need 2 different institutions to enforce law? Well, Saudi Arabia has been known to be the cradle of Islam, and it's where Mecca is where all Mulsims face towards when praying. Saudi Arabia has believed that it would be the protector of Islam, and hence, they are trying to enforce the Sharee3a law.

Unfortunately, what they are doing has given them a name; Wahabism. Wahabism is known to be the sect of Muslims who forbid everything and anything. And it is known that if you start talking to a Wahaby, he will probably tell you a list of 7arams that is much bigger that his list of 7alals. Lately I have been seeing a lot of Wahabis in Egypt, which is a natural effect of Egyptians working and living in Saudi, then returning to Egypt with the Wahaby school-of-thought.

Anyway, the CPVPV is known to walk around the streets hitting women who are not "properly dressed", arresting anyone they suspect of drinking alcohol or eating pork, arresting non-married men and women for socializing, forcing people to pray at pray time, and even forcing shops to be closed during pray time. And of course, they are not scandal-free. March 11th 2002, there was a fire in a Meccan girls school, where it is told by the Saudi press that the CPVPV has forced the school gates shut preventing 15 school-girls from leaving the burning school, because they were "not properly dressed", resulting in their tragic death. Lately, there is a number of additions to their "laws", which include shutting down shops that sell Western DVDs and CDs, arresting people with cats or dogs as pets since it's a Western tradition, and lately banning red roses from flower shops 2 days ahead of Valentine's day. Why? Because Valentine's day is a pagan festivication which encourages relationships between non-married men and women.

As far as I know, Saudis do not manufacture cars, there is no Saudi brand for air-conditioners, and definitely there are no Saudi plasma screens. Moreover, modern concrete apartment buildings is a Western invention; Arabs lived in tents, and agricultural Arabs lived in mud-built houses.

Tough luck my brothers and sisters. Maybe one day you will be able to express your love to one another.

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