The Saudi Arabian Arab News reported in its September 29th edition on the arrest of sixteen foreign workers by Saudi authorities “for allegedly practicing sufism....” The Kingdom’s “religious police” carried out the raid on a house in the northern al-Jouf region.
The newspaper reported that “officials of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice entered the house at about 11 p.m. after receiving a tip-off. The officials seized a large number of videocassettes, magazines and other publications which the expatriates were using to spread sufism.” Commission officials handed the group over to Saudi security services.
The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, known in Saudi Arabia simply as the Muttawa, or religious police, is responsible for enforcing the Islamic codes of dress, morality and religious behavior. The force is made of more than 3,500 officers and thousands of volunteers.
“Sufism or tasawwuf, as it is called in Arabic,” as explained by Dr. Alan Godlas of the Religion Department of the University of Georgia, “is generally understood by scholars and Sufis to be the inner, mystical, or psycho-spiritual dimension of Islam. Today, however, many Muslims and non-Muslims believe that Sufism is outside the sphere of Islam.”
The newspaper reported that “officials of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice entered the house at about 11 p.m. after receiving a tip-off. The officials seized a large number of videocassettes, magazines and other publications which the expatriates were using to spread sufism.” Commission officials handed the group over to Saudi security services.
The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, known in Saudi Arabia simply as the Muttawa, or religious police, is responsible for enforcing the Islamic codes of dress, morality and religious behavior. The force is made of more than 3,500 officers and thousands of volunteers.
“Sufism or tasawwuf, as it is called in Arabic,” as explained by Dr. Alan Godlas of the Religion Department of the University of Georgia, “is generally understood by scholars and Sufis to be the inner, mystical, or psycho-spiritual dimension of Islam. Today, however, many Muslims and non-Muslims believe that Sufism is outside the sphere of Islam.”