One of the features of an Islamic society is that those in powerhas their own enforcement branch called the Islamic religious police (also mutaween) is the police force responsible for the enforcement of sharia in some Muslim-majority countries. The word mutaween (Arabic: المطوعين muṭawwiʿīn) have variant English spellings: mutawwain, muttawa, mutawallees, mutawa’ah, mutawi’, mutawwa’) and literally means “volunteers” in the Arabic language. [1] This word is commonly used as a casual term to refer to 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. In Saudi Arabia, the formal short term for the Saudi religious police is هيئة “hay’ah”. The concept is thought to have originated from Wahabbism 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. In reality those “enforcing bodies” called “sharia police” often form roving bands of thugs who roam the streets with bats and intimidate citizens, beat women, and attack anyone who they deem to be lacking the proper respect for the “religion of peace” and his prophet. 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). 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] Now, one community in Germany has just started one of these thug patrols.
NBC News reported the story:
Small groups of hardline Salafist Muslims have been patrolling the streets of a German city hoping to “influence and recruit young people,” police said. The groups were seen in the western city of Wuppertal wearing bright orange reflective vests with “Shariah Police” on the back. “This was seen as a violation against Germany’s public assembly law and charges were filed,” police spokesman Andre Schwanicke told NBC News. Officials say they have increased the police presence in the city.
Meanwhile, a YouTube propaganda video from the German Salafist scene was posted online showing a poster with the English headline “Shariah Controlled Zone”, followed by images of Salafists recruiting young people and visiting gambling halls. “The video is a new provocation and part of the Salafist propaganda, which shows that the scene does not acknowledge Germany’s rule of law,” Joerg Rademacher, spokesman for the state’s interior ministry said. Officials in Northrhein-Westphalia say that the Salafist scene in Germany’s most populated state consists of approximately 1,800 members alone, of which 10 percent are considered to be violent extremists.
“An appearance that intimidates, unsettles and provokes will not be tolerated. There is no legitimation for this “Shariah Police”,” Birgitta Radermacher, police chief of Wuppertal was quoted as saying in a statement. [4]
Hopefully the people from the city of MAINZ, Germany, where the tragedy unfolds, will track down these Muslim extremists and throw them in jail for their thuggery.
