{"id":14063,"date":"2012-01-17T09:56:29","date_gmt":"2012-01-17T05:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=14063"},"modified":"2012-03-07T08:53:11","modified_gmt":"2012-03-07T04:53:11","slug":"new-head-of-saudi-religious-police-a-moderate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-society\/new-head-of-saudi-religious-police-a-moderate\/","title":{"rendered":"New Head of Saudi Religious Police: A Moderate?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"highslide\" onclick=\"return vz.expand(this)\" href=\"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/2012\/01\/17\/new-head-of-saudi-religious-police-a-moderate\/abdul\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14072\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-14072\" title=\"abdul\" src=\"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/abdul-e1326779757742.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"497\" height=\"315\" \/><\/a>The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice have a new chief, Sheikh Abdullatif Al-Asheikh. Al-Asheikh has a Doctoraate in Islamic Science (i.e., Shariah Law) and has worked \u201cas a director general of investigations at the General Presidency, second assistant secretary-general at the Council of Senior Religious Scholars and special adviser at the Riyadh governorate.\u201d He calls himself an administrator and wants people to judge his job performance through the actions of the Haya and not just his words.<\/p>\n<p>Both <em>Arab News<\/em> and <em>Saudi Gazette<\/em> scored interviews with him following his appointment last Friday. In both interviews, he stresses that his officials cannot be committing wrongs while trying to encourage the good, their role under the concept of <em>hisba<\/em>, that is, encouraging virtue while combating vice. He says his officials will be trained, but also held accountable for their own misdeeds. He emphasizes to his officers that dignity, of both the officers and the recipients of their attention must have their dignity preserved.<\/p>\n<p>Al-Asheikh is known as a moderate and supporter of women\u2019s place in the national economy. He points to history and the Quran for proof that women\u2019s daily interaction with men in the marketplace has long been approved. He is not a \u2018liberal\u2019, however, as he still has strong beliefs about the proper \u2018place\u2019 of women in society and the extent to which \u2018mingling\u2019 of the sexes is permitted.<\/p>\n<p><em>Saudi Gazette\/Okaz<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.saudigazette.com.sa\/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&amp;contentID=20120115115595\"><strong>\u2018Hai\u2019a will prevent vice without vice\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Arab News<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/arabnews.com\/saudiarabia\/article563442.ece\"><strong>New chief hints at Haia reform,<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/arabnews.com\/saudiarabia\/article563442.ece\"><strong>says mistakes will not go unpunished<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CROSSROADS ARABIA:  A well known supporter of the right of women to work Sheikh Abdullatif Al-Sheikh still has a traditional view of their place within Saudi society.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":14072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,173,981,482,10,5],"tags":[10865,883,10863,1081,1031,18275,3882,10864,6756,133,177],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14063"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}