Saudi Religious Police Take Some Heat

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.  This week’s item is from HoustonChronicle.com, March 17, 2002 with a headline: “Saudi Religious Police Blamed in School Fire Deaths,” dateline: Dubai, United Arab Emirates.Government run newspapers in Saudi Arabia have accused the country’s religious police of preventing the rescue of girls trapped in a school fire because they were not wearing the long dresses and head coverings required in public.Fourteen girls died in the catastrophe last Monday at the 31^st Girl’s Middle School in Mecca, some 470 miles southeast of Riyadh.Fifty others were injured while 100s of others escaped.The religious police which have offices in every city are routinely criticized privately in Saudi society.But this was believed to be the first time that newspapers in the kingdom have come out with harsh words against them.The newspapers accuse members of the religious police, The Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice of blocking rescue attempts by male firefighters and paramedics because some of the girls were not wearing the mandatory Islamic dress which covers the entire body and hair.They forced the girls to remain inside the school and didn’t allow them to leave saying that their hair wasn’t covered and they weren’t wearing the abaya the Al Eqtisadiah newspaper said citing firefighters and police.The government run Saudi Gazette said 835 students and 55 teachers were in the building at the time of the fire which broke out ½ hour after classes started.The Saudi press agency said students started screaming setting off a stampede for the exits.Initial reports said some gates were lock because the guard who had the key was away.But Al-Eqtisadiah quoted unidentified civil police officers as saying that religious police blocked the gate and refused to move even after rescuers tried to convince them that the situation was very serious.According to the newspaper reports most of the victims suffocated, fell from the windows of the four-story building, or were trampled to death.Besides the religious police, the newspapers also criticized the Education Minister and the schooling system.According to the Daily Arab News, parents of the victims said they were considering taking legal action against education officials.In the past, members of the religious police would roam streets and shopping malls beating women who were not covered according to Islamic teaching.

Tom:

Dave, this is really a tragic story.Again, religion.If it’s not the truth or people who even take the truth—sometimes they can distort it into something, not what God says, but what their own hearts want.

Dave:

Well that’s what Islam is from the very beginning of course.We’ve pointed out in the past that Muhammad could get a revelation whenever he needed it.Contradictory revelations.A revelation when he wanted someone else’s wife, that God required him to take this woman and so forth.

Tom:

Joseph Smith as well. We talked about that earlier.

Dave:

Right.Joseph Smith, he got revelations like that.Unfortunately Muhammad who claims to be the 28^th prophet. Jesus is a prophet too, but Muhammad is a greater prophet—

Tom:

According to Islam?

Dave:

Right, to fulfill everything and so forth. [It] absolutely contradicts all the teachings of Christ and the example of Christ.Muhammad was a terrorist.He killed people by the thousands to force them to submit to his new religion.There is no God, but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet.And you know, it’s like the Taliban.You’ve got to go back to the 7^th century; you’ve got to dress like Muhammad, live like Muhammad, eat like Muhammad and so forth.Muhammad was not a man you would want to emulate.He had 20 some wives, he had slaves, he tortured people, he murdered people and we’re going to follow his example?But these people are trying to and they are trying (these religious police), they’re trying to be real Muslims.They’re trying to follow—you understand that Islam is not just in the Qur’an, but in the Hadith.The Hadith is a record of the sayings and deeds of Muhammad as recorded by his closest companions and now they are trying to follow the letter of the law.The Bible tells us that the letter kills.The spirit brings life and there’s no flexibility for these people.

Tom:

Dave, I think there’s also going to be trouble—here reading again from this story.Besides the religious police, the newspapers also criticized the Education Minister and the schooling system according to Daily Arab News, parents of the victims said that they were considering taking legal action against education officials.Now, we have Sharia.What laws are we talking about here?What law is going to supercede the other law?Do we have civil law here?Do we have religious law?They’re in for trouble.This is a legalistic system not knowing whether it’s coming or going I think.

Dave:

Well, unfortunately I think it cost the lives of a number of these girls.But worse than that, to follow Islam, it will cost your soul for eternity because Islam teaches that it is by your efforts that somehow your good deeds, if your good deeds outweigh the bad, (we’ve talked about that) then you will make it to heaven.Hardly any Muslim out there even imagines his good deeds without weighing his bad.If he looks within his own heart, he knows that isn’t going to work and that’s why you have people blowing themselves up.That’s one sure way to die as a suicide martyr.This is a tragedy because in Islam no one has paid the penalty for our sins.God became a man.This is not Allah, this is Yahweh, and he came to this earth and became a man thorough the virgin birth and paid the penalty for our sins to satisfy his own justice so that he could forgive people on a righteous basis.But the God of Islam, Allah, if your good deeds outweigh your bad, then you’re okay.Wait a minute!The Bible clearly says by the deeds of the law no one can be justified. Because if you have broken the law in the past, you can’t make up for it by keeping it in the future.Common sense, the human conscience tells you this is not right.And yet these people are bound, they are in bondage to this idea.You cannot have a non-Muslim place of worship in Saudi Arabia.A Jew can’t even enter Saudi Arabia.You must be a Muslim to be a citizen of Saudi Arabia, I mean it’s more than what happened at this school Tom.What happened at the school is the outcome of a false religion led by a false prophet that breeds fanaticism and is creating terrorism around the world today.

Tom:

Dave, just as we’ve mentioned in past programs, we’re praying that September 11^th, would be a wakeup call for Muslims with regard to what they believe.But also, this very, this sad grievous story of this loss of lives, we would hope and pray that this would get their attention and say wait a minute, what is going on here?

Dave:

Yes, what is this religion that we are following?