Special to WorldTribune.com

ABU DHABI — Saudi Arabia has reported tension between the government and the controversial religious police.

Senior officials have accused the religious police, called Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, of violating the law and ignoring government policy. They cited the harassment by the police, known by the Arabic acronym, Haia, of working women.

“The ministry has received several complaints from owners of women’s [lingerie] and accessory shops that Haia members are dictating conditions that do not figure in the orders issued by the ministry, or the memorandum of understanding signed between the ministry and the Haia, related to the shops that sell [lingerie],” Labor Minister Adel Fakeih said.

In mid-September, Fakeih complained to commission
president Abdul Latif Al A-Sheik of harassment by the religious police. In an unusual move attributed to King Abdullah, the letter was published in the
state-controlled media.

Fakeih became the first minister to accuse the religious police of
exceeding their authority. He said Haia, accused of harassing women,
families and non-Muslims, were threatening to close lingerie shops and
prevent customers from entering.

Haia was also warned against stopping women drivers. Officials said the
king has intervened amid complaints that the religious police were arresting
women drivers.

“The arrest of women driving cars is within the powers and jurisdiction
of the security authorities,” a Saudi source told the prominent daily Al
Hayat. “The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice
applies the rules of the state and cannot go beyond them.”

Over the last five years, the religious police was doubled to 10,000
officers. Many of the officers were Islamist seminary students and believed
to have been recruited to prevent them from joining the wars in Iraq and
Syria.

Women have been banned from driving in the Gulf Cooperation Council
kingdom. But the king is believed to have eased enforcement of the law
while religious police were ordered to allow women to ride bicycles in
public and frequent parks.

  Abdul Latif Al A-Sheik, Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, Haia, King Abdullah, non-Muslims, Saudi lingerie shop complain of harassment by religious police