# Morality police claim that millions of Egyptians approve of their work



## hhaddad (Apr 14, 2010)

A new moral policing committee has piqued the ire of the foremost religious authority in Egypt, Al-Ahzar


Ahram Online, Thursday 5 Jan 2012​ 


  
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The Committee was launched on Facebook


The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has brushed aside rejection from Al-Azhar, the highest religious authority in the Sunni world, and claimed that millions of Egyptians approve of the committee.
In a statement released by the group, the committee said that the fact that millions of Egyptians voted for the Salafist El-Nour Party proves that they endorse the concept borrowed from a similar group in Saudi Arabia.
The anonymous group had announced previously that it was formed to preserve the morals of Egyptians in accordance with Sharia law (Islamic jurisprudence). Its formation sent shockwaves through Egypt, with reports that the committee’s members were visiting barbers and clothes shops and lecturing the owners that their businesses are _haram_ (sinful).
However, the Salafist El-Nour Party’s official Facebook page denied any relation to the new group which was launched on Facebook.
On Wednesday night, after an emergency meeting, Al-Azhar released a statement saying that for 1000 years they have been the only lawful authority on the Islamic religion in Egypt. Al-Azhar slammed the committee as illegitimate and overriding the legitimacy of Al-Azhar as a religious institution.
The committee shot back with an accusation that Al-Azhar was being unfair and that its allegations were “fabrications made up against a committee that millions of Egyptians consented to because of their desire to see the diligent work of their members as they establish the law of God.”


Morality police claim that millions of Egyptians approve of their work - Politics - Egypt - Ahram Online




Here we go, having seen personally what this means when I worked in Saudi if it happens ther will be no tourism at all and the Arabs will also stop coming here.


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## CatMandoo (Dec 16, 2011)

I was just reading this article hhaddad. I haven't heard anything about Alex, but am sure they will start up here too. Borg El Arab, a small city close to Alex is full of them.


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

The revolution was a success and democracy is alive and kicking in Egypt.

The people who died in this revolution must be turning in their graves,


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## CatMandoo (Dec 16, 2011)

The following was taken from an editorial on Egypt Today Magazine. I would have paid anything to be there to see this. :clap2:





The Reluctant Editorialist 
Egypt's Own: extremists take a beating in Qalyoubia 
By Noha Mohammed 
January 2012 






Among the events, big and small, of the past few days, one story really got me worried — the activation of the Amr Bil Maarouf and Nahy Aan El-Monkar (Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice) societies in Egypt. New Year’s Day brought tidings of their initial campaign in Qalyoubia where members reportedly ‘visited’ retail stores and barber shops, warning employees at the former that they had to start stocking ‘conservative’ womenswear and telling the latter that they were not to shave men’s beards (Muslim tradition encourages men to trim their mustaches but leave their beards unshaved). More of these visits (surprise, checkup ones) were promised.

A friend of mine told me the initial reaction to the directives was “utter disbelief and incredulity.”

*But it’s always the women who save the day — and bring on the laughs.* When Amr bil Maarouf and Nahy Aan El-Monkar activists stormed a hairdresser’s and sanctimoniously announced what the male hairdressers were doing was nothing short of haram (forbidden) and displeasing to God, and urged them to change the commercial activity of their outlet and switch to a more ‘honest’ trade, they were chased out of the building by the customers. *The women took the fight out to the street, beating the men speechless in front of all and sundry.
*


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## hhaddad (Apr 14, 2010)

*Egyptian women cane morality police*

Vigilante gangs of ultra-conservative Salafi men have been harassing shop owners and female customers in rural towns around Egypt for “indecent behavior,” according to reports in the Egyptian news media. But when they burst into a beauty salon in the Nile delta town of Benha this week and ordered the women inside to stop what they were doing or face physical punishment, the women struck back, whipping them with their own canes before kicking them out to the street in front of an astonished crowd of onlookers.
Modeling themselves after Saudi Arabia’s morality police as a “Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice,” the young men raided clothing and other retail shops around the Qalubiya province over New Year’s weekend declaring they were there to enforce Islamic law, according to the Tahrir News.
Shop owners were told they could no longer sell “indecent” clothing, barbers could no longer shave men’s beards, and that all retail businesses should expect regular and surprise inspections to check for compliance. Frightened customers were ordered to cover up and threatened with severe punishment if they did not abide by “God’s law on earth.”
But when the women in a Benha beauty salon stood up to the young Salafi enforcers, they found support on the streets as well as online, with one amused reader suggesting that women should be deputized to protect the revolution’s democratic values.
Last month thousands of women marched in Tahrir Square in outrage over the clubbing and sexual humiliation of female demonstrators, like the notorious beating and stripping of “the blue bra girl” in December, whose videoed assault made headlines around the world.
In one of the first pubic apologies ever issued by the military, generals from the ruling council acknowledged the incident and apologized even before the Dec. 17 march had ended. The military faced a second rebuke a week later when a civilian court banned the military’s use of “virginity tests” to shame and humiliate female demonstrators.
In addition to invading shops, the “morality police” also smashed Christmas trees and decorations in front of stores and malls, declaring the celebration of Christmas “haram” or forbidden. Salafi sheiks have also banned the sending of Christmas greetings, prompting the more moderate Muslim Brotherhood to broadcast messages of Christmas cheer to their Christian brethren.
The conservative Salafi sect promotes the strict segregation of the sexes, with many Salafi women wearing the all-enveloping black nikkab gown with eye slits. The group has worried the tourist industry with their pledge to ban alcohol and mixed-gender beaches. Coptic Christians who saw two of their churches torched by Salafis last spring fear further persecution.
Sunni sheiks from Cairo’s respected Al Azhar mosque and university called an emergency meeting January 4 to discuss the problem, and declared that the Salafi morality police had no legitimate or legal authority on the street, according to Ahramonline.
Two days later, Egyptian former mufti Nasr Farid who was once responsible for issuing religious edicts or fatwas based on Sharia law agreed, stating that the young vigilantes were usurping state authority and did not have the jurisdiction to impose their concept of religious law.
In response, the group pointed to the al Nour party’s recent election triumph in which they won nearly 30 percent of parliament seats, as giving them a mandate to enforce Sharia law. They claimed they not only had the backing of members of Al Nour’s leadership council, but that al Nour leadership had in fact provided the funding to mobilize young volunteers.
The Al Nour party’s Facebook page however denied financing the group.
In a desperate effort to gain control of their public message, Al Nour party officials have tried to control the actions of their followers and silence individual Salafi sheiks, like Abdel Moneim el Shahat in conservative Alexandria, who has suggested covering the “obscene” figures on Egypt’s ancient monuments with wax.
The young members of the morality police held their first meeting this week, according to a report in the Al Masry Al Youm newspaper, “to determine the tasks and geographical jurisdictions of the first volunteers, who would monitor people’s behavior in the street and assess whether they contradicted God’s laws. Volunteers would wear white cloaks and hold bamboo canes to beat violators and later would be provided with electric tasers.”
BM


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## PaulAshton (Nov 18, 2011)

CatMandoo said:


> (Muslim tradition encourages men to trim their mustaches but leave their beards unshaved)


Bit of double standards yet they do not what is cited below as"haraam" 

Common sense does not prevail, removing pubic hair and plucking arm pit hairs is one of the parts of the fitrah but getting a hair cut is haraam? 

_“The fitrah consists of five things: circumcision, trimming the moustache, cutting the nails, plucking the armpit hairs and shaving the pubic hairs”(Al-Bukhari and Muslim.)"_

Incidentally stores only sell waxing strips at 50LE and crappy sugaring kits but no sign of hard wax

Maybe the Islamists will create a barber shop where you have to stand on your head but wear a veil

Let's hope they Salifist do not get in or stores will consider toilet paper haraam and only sell 3 stones and some mud to wipe our bottoms, as dictated again in the Qu'ran


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## DeadGuy (Jan 22, 2010)

Those folks have been REALLY active where I "live", threatening barber shops and trying to "isolate" passengers in buses working downtown and to the cities nearby, also apparently it's "haram" for a Muslim taxi driver to pick a female that's not covering her hair, the female members of my family literally struggle to get a ride, and when together, it seems that the only way for a Muslim taxi driver to pick us up is when he can't see anyone else but me waiting for a taxi!

Also when I was out very late one night I could notice a bunch of retards with spray paint cans typing _"Closed for prayers"_ on the shops' doors!

Something else that needs to be mentioned, the "authorities" blocked a tasers' shipment that was supposed to be delivered to those idiots, apparently they ordered it to help them starting their "job"!


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## kevinthegulf (Aug 16, 2009)

Welcome back we were worried by your absence


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

DeadGuy said:


> Those folks have been REALLY active where I "live", threatening barber shops and trying to "isolate" passengers in buses working downtown and to the cities nearby, also apparently it's "haram" for a Muslim taxi driver to pick a female that's not covering her hair, the female members of my family literally struggle to get a ride, and when together, it seems that the only way for a Muslim taxi driver to pick us up is when he can't see anyone else but me waiting for a taxi!
> 
> Also when I was out very late one night I could notice a bunch of retards with spray paint cans typing _"Closed for prayers"_ on the shops' doors!
> 
> Something else that needs to be mentioned, the "authorities" blocked a tasers' shipment that was supposed to be delivered to those idiots, apparently they ordered it to help them starting their "job"!




Well it seems the authorities have done something right...:clap2:


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## aykalam (Apr 12, 2010)

MaidenScotland said:


> Well it seems the authorities have done something right...:clap2:


hmm...they do like to keep a monopoly on violence. I'm glad they stopped the shipment though. 

I've just re-read the title of this thread and, unfortunately, I believe they are not wrong


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## DeadGuy (Jan 22, 2010)

MaidenScotland said:


> Well it seems the authorities have done something right...:clap2:


True, but with everything that's happening in Egypt at the moment, it was better for them to confiscate the shipment before it's delivered than having to deal with the criticism.

Besides..........It was confiscated because it's "illegal" to import/use the tasers, not cause it was gonna be delivered to those idiots........And just cause it was confiscated does not necessarily mean those idiots aren't gonna put their hands on it


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## DeadGuy (Jan 22, 2010)

aykalam said:


> hmm...they do like to keep a monopoly on violence. I'm glad they stopped the shipment though.
> 
> I've just re-read the title of this thread and, unfortunately, I believe they are not wrong


You have no idea.........


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## aykalam (Apr 12, 2010)

great! 

Ahram Online:

"The self-proclaimed islamist "Morality Police" announced on its new official Facebook page that it has acquired 1,000 tazers to be distributed to volunteers who will promote "virtue" and combat "vice" in the Egyptian street.
The "Morality Police", which models itself on a similar group in Saudi Arabia that monitors citizens social behaviour, added in its announcement that these electric shocks batons will help in self-defence against any possible attacks on volunteers, adding that volunteers would be instructed to use the tazers only in "extremely necessary" situations.

The Facebook page announced that the first field training session for volunteers will be on Thursday evening in El-Mandara neighbourhood in Alexandria.

Meanwhile, Suez Port authorities announced last week that they foiled an attempt to smuggle in 1,000 tazers while it was not clear who the shipment was intended to reach.

Islamist and organised Salafist forces such as the Nour Party have distanced themselves from the "Morality Police" group, which has so far only operated in cyberspace"

http://english.ahram.org.eg/Media/News/2012/1/12/2012-634619705951853011-185.jpg


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

aykalam said:


> great!
> 
> Ahram Online:
> 
> ...




I would like to see a photograph in a reputable newspaper of these morality police


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## DeadGuy (Jan 22, 2010)

MaidenScotland said:


> I would like to see a photograph in a reputable newspaper of these morality police


Reputable newspaper?! How dare you _infidel European_ 

Seriously though, let's just hope that newspapers will be allowed in the first place, even without females' pictures, or even writers 

Enjoy the brand new 2012 fully optimized Egypt


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## Lanason (Sep 1, 2009)

aykalam said:


> great!
> 
> Ahram Online:
> 
> ...



last week 1,000 tazers confiscated - this week Morality Police" acquired 1,000 tazers. :eyebrows:


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

Lanason said:


> last week 1,000 tazers confiscated - this week Morality Police" acquired 1,000 tazers. :eyebrows:




maybe the port authourities are moonlighting


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## DeadGuy (Jan 22, 2010)

Lanason said:


> last week 1,000 tazers confiscated - this week Morality Police" acquired 1,000 tazers. :eyebrows:


Trying to help them with the customs' fees


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

One would think that CS. CR gas and tazers would come under the luxury goods status and be banned the same way tiger shrimps, cat food and lettuce are.


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## hhaddad (Apr 14, 2010)

Following the lead of its established counterpart in ultraconservative Saudi Arabia, the novel apparatus calls itself the “Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Egypt.” The group first unveiled itself on Facebook last month, where it provided information about its approach and objectives. Its first official page was recently attacked by hackers before another one was launched to take its place.
“We are youth from the Salafist Calling in Egypt. We announce the formation of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, led by [the example of] the holy lands,” the committee declared in an online statement. “We took this step based on the overwhelming majority’s choice of Islam [in parliamentary polls].”
Because the group used the Salafist Nour Party’s official logo, it was initially believed – wrongly, as it turns out – to have been established by the runners-up in Egypt’s parliamentary elections, which wrapped up on 11 January.
According to the page, the committee’s founders are members of the Nour Party, while any “religiously committed” Muslim man between 25 and 40 – with a high school diploma – is invited to apply to join the group for a weekly salary of LE500 and one meal per day. The group also claims to be recruiting women on a smaller scale.
“We are not directly affiliated with the Nour Party, but since we are members of it, we are adopting the same frame of reference,” the page reads. The group also claims to have been founded “under the guidance of the [Nour] party’s leaders.”
The Nour Party, however, has vehemently denied having any connection with the committee and has vowed to take legal action against its founders for asserting otherwise. Shortly afterward, under a new logo, the committee declared its independence from the party, which, it claimed, had caved in to pressure by “secularists” to disown it.
The committee’s origins, therefore, remain unknown until now.
On its Facebook page, the group has reassured critics that it would “not resort to violence, but will depend on debate and preaching to implement Islamic Law.” 
Yet despite these assurances, the committee’s appearance has prompted concern among much of the public. Fears mounted after some enforcers of Islamic Law began plying their trade, although their presence has yet to be documented in Cairo or in other governorates.
In a recent statement, the committee declared that it would begin operating by the beginning of next month, with the enforcers wearing white cloaks and carrying recently imported electric batons to defend themselves if attacked while “fulfilling their duties.”
_*Niqab*_*for women, beards for men*
Whether or not they are associated with the self-styled Egyptian Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, some of the morality enforcers that actually hit the streets are said to be adamant about persuading women to wear the face veil, or _Niqab_. 
Aya Hamdy, a face-veiled 27-year-old housewife, says she encountered one of them in the secluded upscale residential compound of El-Rehab in New Cairo. “I was heading to a shopping mall when some bearded man wearing a _galabya_ and jacket passed me and told me, ‘cover yourself, sister!’ and kept walking,” she told Ahram Online.
“I swore at him and then called my husband, who was right behind me. Meanwhile, the guy’s pace became faster; he had left by the time my husband arrived,” she recalled. “I’m not sure if he was one of these alleged ‘morality police,’ but after we left the mall, we found him in the same zone. He appeared to be patrolling the area.
“I wear the veil and always dress modestly, but that was clearly not enough for him,” said Hamdy. “Later, I found out that several veiled girls had been subject to similar situations in other districts.” 
Other reported incidents saw Islamist enforcers targeting barbershops because they wanted men to grow their beards in imitation of Prophet Muhammad.
Gender segregation in public transportation and universities is also one of their goals, according to media reports. No use of force has been reported in this regard, although incidents have been reported in the Qalioubiya Governorate north of Cairo and 6 October City on the outskirts of the capital, among other places.
On its Facebook page, the committee also said it would monitor the behaviour of citizens in public places to prevent anything not in compliance with Islamic doctrine. Following the lead of its Saudi counterpart, the Egyptian group also said it would ask citizens to pray at appointed times and call on traders to close their shops when calls to prayer were heard.
*How far can they go?*
The government-sanctioned morality police in Saudi Arabia enforce a strict version of Islamic Law (Wahhabism) and impose harsh sanctions on natives who break it. For instance, one would have his/her hand cut off for stealing, receive dozens of lashes for committing acts of debauchery, and be beheaded by sword for more serious crimes such as witchcraft or murder.
People in the oil-rich kingdom can be arrested or compulsorily taken to a mosque just for being in the street during prayer times, although those acting as morality police in Egypt have been nowhere nearly as strict as their Saudi brethren.

A couple of decades ago, however, Egypt had its own taste of this sort of stringent theocratic rule. In the 1990s, when Egypt’s Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya was still deemed a terrorist organisation, some of its members established morality police in Cairo’s low-income Imbaba district.
One of Al-Jamaa’s more notorious morality enforcers at the time was Sheikh Gaber, otherwise known as Gaber El-Tabal. According to media reports, he declared the establishment of an “Islamic Republic of Imbaba” by calling for the enforcement of Islamic rules as draconian as those in Saudi Arabia.
Media reports at the time suggested that Gaber was an armed terrorist who had committed numerous crimes in the name of Islam, as he was portrayed in the Egyptian big-screen production _Dam El-Ghazal__ (‘Blood of the Gazelle’)_.
Many Imbaba residents say El-Tabal’s influence did not go beyond preaching and prohibiting pornography, alcohol and belly dancing. El-Tabal, for his part, who was imprisoned for 14 years, denied in recent interviews the many charges that have been levelled against him.
But El-Tabal does not deny Al-Jamaa’s impact on Imbaba at the time. He also expresses remorse for his previous approach, not unlike Al-Jamaa’s decision in the late 1990s to adhere to a peaceful political route after engaging in terrorism in the 1980s and much of the 1990s.
According to prominent Islamist lawyer Montasser El-Zayat, the appearance of another such extremist Islamic group in Egypt is unlikely. “Egyptians have always been moderate when it comes to religion,” El-Zayat told Ahram Online. “They’ve rejected fanaticism before, and will do so again.
“It has yet to be confirmed that such an organised group actually exists in Egypt, but it wouldn’t be a one-off if it turned out to be true,” he added. “Committees for the ‘promotion of virtue and prevention of vice’ first appeared in Egypt in the 1970s.”



http://english.ahram.org.eg/~/NewsContent/1/64/31484/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt%E2%80%99s-morality-police-Islamic-fanaticism-or-elab.aspx











































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## DeadGuy (Jan 22, 2010)

It sure as Hell wasn't just Imbaba back in 1980's and 1990's, it was only Imbaba that had the propaganda maybe with those folks actually announcing it, but there are many other areas of Egypt where those folks were pretty active and did cause some serious damage, including murdering those who didn't follow their "instructions"!

But frankly I think their job will be a lot easier these days, I mean one of the stuff they did back then was telling the Muslim shop owners not to deal with Copts, telling Muslims not to buy from shops owned by Copts, etc. but now that's already happening without anyone telling anyone to do so.

Other than that, the dressing "code" thing, the gender mixing thing, the hair/beard thing, those weren't really issues that were hard for them to deal with, back then they just dragged whoever won't "submit" down the road and beat the sh!t outta them and then leave them after making sure everyone knows who did that and why.

However I don't think that would effect many expats, cause the majority will most likely start flying back home if sh!t like that started, and the rest who might decide to stay, they'd probably be "safe" as long as alcohol and bright blonde hair are kept "under cover" :ranger:


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