Saudi religious police face backlash

[Psycho4Bud]

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - As the car stopped outside a Riyadh amusement park, two bearded men dragged the driver from the wheel and took the three women on a wild ride of more than an hour, bouncing over sidewalks and finally abandoning them on a darkened street.

The women at first thought they had been kidnapped by terrorists. The two men however, said they were religious police.

It might have gone down as just one more excess of zealousness by the forces charged with upholding Islamic modesty, except that Umm Faisal, the senior of three women, did something that is believed unprecedented in Saudi Arabia: She went to court.

On Monday, four years after the incident, the latest chapter of the legal battle being waged by this 50-year-old mother of five reopens before Riyadh's Grievances Court, which handles damages suits for abuses by government and public figures.

The unusual publicity surrounding Umm Faisal's story comes on top of two cases involving the death in religious police custody of two Saudi men â?? one arrested for allegedly consuming alcohol, another for being alone with a woman not of his family.

A trial opened Sunday against three religious police officers and a fourth man in the death of Ahmed al-Bulaiwi, the man detained for being alone with a woman. Relatives demanded the death penalty against the defendants.

Taken together, the cases threaten to undermine the authority of the force's employer, the powerful, independent body called the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

Since the commission's creation more than six decades ago, there has been no known public legal action taken against its members despite complaints they occasionally overstep their boundaries. The public view has tended to be that whatever their faults, they are acting in Islam's name to defend morality.

But things may be changing.
Saudi religious police face backlash - Yahoo! News

Be thankful you live where you do.......imagine if some of the religious right had this sort of power here in the states or in G.B.

Have a good one!:s4:

Psycho4Bud Reviewed by Psycho4Bud on 07-02-2007. Saudi religious police face backlash RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - As the car stopped outside a Riyadh amusement park, two bearded men dragged the driver from the wheel and took the three women on a wild ride of more than an hour, bouncing over sidewalks and finally abandoning them on a darkened street. The women at first thought they had been kidnapped by terrorists. The two men however, said they were religious police. It might have gone down as just one more excess of zealousness by the forces charged with upholding Islamic Rating: 5

[wannabehippiegirl]

i use to live in saudi arabia
i dont remember it being anything like that
wow things have gotten stricker

[Anubis10012007]

I really hate these Islamic Republics. They are no different than medieval European states when the Church and kings ruled supreme.

Sad that since the Muslim World in the Middle Ages surpassed Europe in science and mathematics and in fact led to the European Renaissance.

If it just weren't for the damn religion! lol. Its not the religion itself that really bothers me, its the interpretation of the Qu'ran by radical Muslims. Islam could have been totally different today because of the interpretation. The same as the radical interpretation of the Bible like the 18th century Protestant minister Jonathan Edwards or modern ones like Jerry Falwell. Its no different.

I think that it is really ironic that martyrdom is in reality a bigger idea in Christianity than Islam. Jesus was recorded as saying you must lay down your life to follow me. Then we have the accounts of early Christians dying freely for their faith in Roman coliseums. Islam is mostly about laws and regulations. I know all about their convert or die policy. lol. There should be a sign in those shithole countries before you cross the border that say 'CONVERT OR DIE'.

The whole point of being secular is that people can worship however they want and they can be left alone doing it. Being secular means the people have a common goal that doesn't involve dogma. They don't have to worry about "holy soldiers" coming to fuck them up, just tax collectors. lol.

Now I am not anti-Muslim...but I am anti fundamental and anti-abuse in ANY religion. Islam was founded on the worship of the Arab moon god and the 3 Daughters of Allah. The Christian trinity can be traced back to Hinduism with its tri-unity of Brahman. The Trinity is blasphemy in 2/3 of the Abrahamic religions. Most doctrines come from an earlier source.

Perhaps the true Allah (God) is really in each and every one of us....not in a book or a mosque.

[wannabehippiegirl]

allah has no daughters sons or spouses
he is not a moon god
he is the creator therefore the god of the universe

[andruejaysin]

Allah is a superstition of a tribe of goatherders. Until people accept that we will be stuck in this mindless battle over whose imaginary friend is cooler.

[wannabehippiegirl]

allah is just the name for god in arabic
if you think its a superstition then all religions are just superstitions

[andruejaysin]

allah is just the name for god in arabic
if you think its a superstition then all religions are just superstitions

Bingo, you got it in one.

[wannabehippiegirl]

i sometimes think i dont believe in god but then everytime i get scared i automactically pray i dont know why but it helps

[Psycho4Bud]

Never say never to something you don't know for sure. If I hit the "after life" gates it can't be said that I stated that a particular religion was bunk. Leaving my options open I suppose you could say.:thumbsup:

Have a good one!:s4:

[andruejaysin]

I don't comepletly rule out the possibillity of god, at least in a very abstract sense. But I certainly think the idea that the creator of the universe would be insecure enough to want to be worshipped absurd. I want to be worshipped, but I'm petty and self-absorbed. Can't we expect better of god?