The Religious Policeman

The Religious Policemen vs. Progress (again)



Crackdown on Camera Phones Intensified

JEDDAH, 14 March 2004 — Authorities have intensified the crackdown on illegal mobile camera phones.

Mobile retail outlets across the Kingdom are being searched by representatives from the Interior Ministry and phones are confiscated. The authorities plan to re-export the collected devices and compensate shop owners with the profits, according to Al-Watan newspaper.

The phones were banned in September 2002 at the urging of the chief of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice following reports that they were being used by some men to secretly photograph women.

But that has not stopped the phones from being sold.

The controversial phones are being bought from neighboring Gulf countries and sold for up to double their original price.

In what other country in the world would Camera Phones be "controversial"?

We can all be reassured that our intrepid Religious Police (aka the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice) have banned them, because (shock, horror), men are using them to photo women.

However, they'll soon learn that they are, to use that wonderful Western expression, "pissing in the wind". Just like when they tried to stop TV satellite dishes.