Egypt to look more like Saudi Arabia
The Muslim Brotherhood is pushing for the establishment of Saudi style 'modesty police' to ensure that behavior it classifies as 'immoral' does not take place in public. Issam Durbala, a member of the Brotherhood's Shura council, told the Egyptian daily Al-Masri Al-Youm on Sunday, that he supported the establishment of a virtue police, or Hisbah, which had existed in medieval Islamic societies to oversee public virtue and modesty, mostly in the marketplace and other public gathering spaces.I'm sure Barack Obama is quite pleased.
But he seemed to stop short of advocating a force along then lines of that which operates in Saudi Arabia today under the auspices of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. It enforces a dress code, separation of sexes and the observances of prayer times.
"The new police must have a department with limited authorities to arrest those who commit immoral acts,” Durbala told the newspaper.
Nevertheless, liberal, secular Egyptians, who led the protests that brought down President Hosni Mubarak and ushered in a new but as yet undefined era in Egypt, regard the proposal as the latest sign that Islamists are emerging as the dominant force in the country.
Sa'id Abd Al-Azim, a leader of the salafi movement in Alexandria, attacked Egyptian "liberals" for waging a media campaign against his movement.
"Despite the attacks against the salafi movement, it is constantly advancing – untouched by the attack," Abd Al-Azim told Al-Masry Al-Youm. "If the Christians want safety they should submit to the rule of God and be confident that the Islamic sharia [law] will protect them."
Labels: Barack Obama, Egyptian regime change, modesty police, Muslim Brotherhood
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:54 PM
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