Saudi Religious Police Apologize Over Kiss Arrest

The National Newspaper:

Jeddah // Saudi Arabia's religious police have been forced to issue a rare apology after a member of one of the country's most influential tribes said he was beaten by police for allegedly kissing his wife in public.

Read the whole story: The National Newspaper

Comments

[Val49]

can we say CRAZY.

[messy]

maybe now they will apologize for throwing those girls back into a burning building to get their chadors.

[Beca]

Wow, that would be a dream come true for the GOP teabaggers, to have a "religious police" in this country. They probably salivated when they read this article and are now trying to figure out how to make that happen here. Scary!

[Solaris123]

These persistent "but booosh" comments are irrelevant.

[djkrlsn]

Beca--get over it--Gore and Kerry lost in 2000 & 2004

[aturner18]

I don't think the Muslims in this country will be able to get away with it.

[1dogs2]

The phrase "religious police" is as terrifying as "secret police." What a concept!

[Joseph Upton]

Again you commie libs are blaming "religion" for something done by MEN. I don't blame "government" for wasteful spending in Washington DC...I blame Obama/Pelo­si/Frank/D­odd etc.

[iluvsam]

ugh. Here we go again.....­..

Thanks the stars that America is losing it's religiosity. This is the kind of ridiculousness that religion leads to.

[truthartbeauty]

It is totally pathetic what 'one of the worlds great religons' has done to humanity. how depraved can anything get and still get a pass because it is 'religion'?

[Beca]

Unfortunately, every religion, when practiced in its fundamental form, and when not controlled can go that far and even farther. If our own Christian Extremist Funamentalist groups could have their own way, there would be a religious police with a shot to kill rule here in the U.S.
This is why it is always imperative that religion is kept in the churches and out of our government.

[Solaris123]

But they don't t have "their own way." That's the difference!
Try thinking..­..

[djkrlsn]

I am sorry--95% of Christians that I know think that the Phelps and their ilk are looney tunes

[JScott]

Has there been any 'undercover' investigation of the 'religious police' in SA.
Like how are the police recruited, what is the education requirement, what is the training they receive, what is the hierarchy, etc. Is it all a totally black box (don't question it, it's in the Qur'an, and to do so it would be unIslamic etc.) and isn't there some sorta undercover TMZ showing the police engaging in the prohibited behaviors----esp. if they are overseas on 'spring break' in Cancun....­.c'mon there must be something.­....I mean it's pretty well know the royals there 'let loose' outside the country.
I think there even used to be a gay porn star who was from there but quit and went back.

[dem 01]

You are wrong !
Nothing is in the "book" about it - if you read it you will find out by yourself
They invented all that BS to protect themself.
As I said earlier - f...ing corrupt

[Solaris123]

There's plenty in "the book" to enshrine Arabic tribal customs under the mantle of religious Islamic dogma. Severe form of patriarchy is certainly one of them. Mahmud probably read the Torah and the Bible, but K-ran morality is all Arab.

[jsgaetano]

It's amazingly hypocritical that we'll have good relations with Saudi Arabia (a country with "religious police"!!!!), yet we spend all this time whining about less oppresive governments, like Cuba or Iran.

[NotesFromME]

To to mention the fact that the 9/11 perpetrators were almost all Saudi.

[Solaris123]

The reli gious police in Iran is equally bad. If not worse.
And there are numerous reports of hang ings and stoning of women for adultery in Iran.

[jsgaetano]

I find it hard to believe Iran is "worse" than Saudi Arabia. Just as bad I could find credible, but "worse"? That sounds like a talking point.

Care to quantify that somehow?

[Beca]

You forget about the extremely chummy relationship we have with Communist China? no problems there! No problem that we owe China trillions in loans, etc.
The U.S. only pretends to be concerned about oppresive governments when those countries don't have anything of value to us, like Cuba. In the case of Iran and Iraq, well, they didn't want to give us what we wanted (their oil for free), so we destroy them under the guise of "freeing the people from ruthless and oppresive governments" (even though we have yet to bomb Iran, we have been hedgin that way for a while now, exagerating their 'badness' for our own propaganda).
In the case of communist China, well, 'oh are they communist? jeez, didn't notice! well that's because they are of the good communist types' (they loan us gazillions of dollars when we need it, they sell us dirt cheap crap, heck we are buddies!).
And at least in this issue of international affairs, we are major hypocrites. The sad part is that the rest of the world sees that, while we keep pretending that we are fooling everyone. The only ones we fool are ourselves.

[dem 01]

These folks are not just corrupt they are also F.. insane !
Can they move into the 21st century ?
OR
living and dying in the 7th century !

[Solaris123]

Mentality is 7th century. But Rolls-Royce cars are latest Western tech.

[darthmaul]

The way it is with conservati­ve-radical religions is that they have an overwhelming compulsion to interfere in the lives of others. It's pathetic when a man can't kiss his own wife in his own car, without being dragged away and beaten up by the police. Be thankful that it hasn't gotten as bad in this country. If the US was a monarchy and if George Bush ruled for say 20 years, it might have gotten pretty bad. As long as we can keep religion out of politics and out of power we have a chance for a rational government.

[Solaris123]

Even worse are the people who actually called religious police to reporting this ehhh.... crime.

[messy]

Kissing is a "crime" in Hindu India as well.

[Balzac]

Why don't you ever hear of "honor killings" in which men kill other men?

In this culture, it seems there is nothing a man can do which is considered unforgivable, but 1,000,000 things a woman or girl can do which is punishable by death.

I find it reprehensible and abhorrent that there should be such a double standard based on gender. Yet I've been told many times that Allah has no gender. Mohammed was a man. Mohammed's mother was a woman.

What is the theological basis for the double standard? Can any Muslim answer me this question?

[dem 01]

I've read your posts, and I know what your talking points are.

Anyway, it is their f.. culture !
There is no single instance in "any" book about "honor killings".

[NotesFromME]

Honor killing is a rather widespread practice in Central Asia and the Middle East, but it is a product of indigenous culture, not religion.

[YouFnPeople]

Honour kiliings are carried out in tribal areas. Among families. And yes, the man involved is often killed as well.
There is nothing in the Koran about honour killings. However they, and the methods, are mentioned in the Hidith, the records of Mohammed's life and sayings.
Have you noticed how the West has advanced in the last sixty years. Think of the effects of Catholisism in the 50s and 60s...

[YouFnPeople]

Apologies -- that should read as Hadith.

[bonum]

regardless of the religion, it's my argument that we, as Americans, must remain vigilant to keep religion OUT of the state and the state out of our religion

I know of several conservative "Christians", who, if they had their way, would insist on the state monitoring our bedrooms!

damn, I hate it when a religion attempts to withhold my freedoms in the USA, and outside of the USA, there are several Muslim countries that scare the bleep out of me due to their extreme ideologies . . . scary!

[MajorKong]

To put these people in perspective:

Back in 1991 we had a KC-135 crew in Jeddah that were in the city shopping.

While helping the female copilot try on a gold bracelet the merchant accidentally touched her wrist. The religious police happened to see this and immediately arrested the copilot for "prostitution", the merchant for "soliciting a prostitute" and the aircraft commander for "pimping".

[wadenelson1]

But Gene Simmons was on TMZ last night? Who exactly did they arrest? The drummer?

[JohnTarab]

Probably not Gene Simmons. Note that line 3 of the Saudi visa application asks for place of birth and line 6 asks for religion. He was born in Haifa, Israel and his real name is Chaim Witz. I don't think the Saudis would have granted entry to anyone of Israeli-Jewish birth. ;=)