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Saudi King
Abdullah (AFP/File, Hamad Olayan)
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RIYADH —
King Abdullah dismissed the head of Saudi Arabia's powerful religious police on
Friday, replacing him with a more moderate cleric, state news agency SPA
reported without giving reasons.
Sheikh
Abdullatif Abdel Aziz al-Sheikh a member of the country's most powerful
religious family, was named in place of Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Humain, to head the
Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.
SPA gave no
reason for the change.
King
Abdullah, a cautious reformer, appointed Humain in 2009 to head the
"mutaween" which ensures the strict application of the country's
ultra-conservative version of Islam, as a step towards reforming it.
Humain
hired consultants to restructure the organisation, met local human rights
groups and consulted professional image-builders in a broad public relations
campaign.
The
commission also investigated and punished some out-of-control officers for
misbehaviour.
It launched
regular training sessions as well, including five-day courses on "skills
to deal with witches and sorcerers" and the three-day "skills to deal
with tourists."
This came
after a number of cases in recent years outraged even Saudis and embarrassed
the government.
In 2002,
they reportedly prevented firemen from entering an all-girls school that was
ablaze because of the segregation-of-sexes policy, and blocked the girls from
escaping because they were not wearing the obligatory veil.
Fourteen
girls were trampled to death and 50 hurt in a stampede after the fire broke
out.
And the
arrest a few years ago of an American businesswoman meeting a man in a Saudi
Starbucks sparked a US complaint.
The new
chief is noted for his moderate views on segregation.
In 2010, he
backed the head of the religious police in Mecca, Ahmed al-Ghamdi, who was
briefly sacked and then rehabilitated after saying Islam does not categorically
require segregation and that shops could remain open during prayer time.
The
religious police prevent women from driving; require them to shroud their faces
and bodies in all-black, shapeless abayas; block public entertainment and force
all commerce, from supermarkets to petrol stations, to come to a halt at prayer
times, five times a day.
They are
the reason Saudis do not have cinemas, that unrelated men and women cannot work
in the same office and that young men fear their cellphones will be searched
for "illicit" photos and messages from unrelated girls.
Although
they fall under the interior ministry, they operate with great autonomy.
They
maintain a close alliance with both the courts -- where all the judges are
Islamic clerics -- and the powerful Grand Ulema, the supreme council of
religious scholars who define the Islamic rules governing life.
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