Middle East Focus: Saudi King Fires Vice Squad Chief, Al Al Al Shaikh Promoted to Vice…………

Arabia Deserta

Saudi King Fires Vice Squad Chief, Al Al Al Shaikh Promoted to Vice…………

Rattlesnake Ridge

BFF

Saudi media report that King Abdullah has fired the head of the Commission for the Propagation of Vice (religious police, vice squad) and replaced him with Abdullatif Al Al Al Shaikh. The new chief Al of the religious cops reportedly thinks it is okay for Saudi women to sell lingerie to other Saudi women, and for other Saudi women to buy lingerie from Saudi women. That is considered quite liberal in the milieu of the Wahhabi faux-liberals of the Gulf region, verging on royal Marxism.
No doubt some will propose the king for one of the Nobel Prizes this year. Definitely not the Peace Prize, given that his troops are still killing Bahraini protesters (and Saudi protesters in Qatif) and given the huge number of Saudi citizens who have vanished in the prison and detention system without charges and without trial.
The new chief of the vice squad, as his name (Al Al Al Shaikh) indicates, is a direct descendent of Shaikh Mohammed Bin Abdulwahhab, after whom the Wahhbai sect was named. He was a close ally of the al-Saud clan from way back. His descendants hold high positions in the Saudi government: there are always some Al Al AL Shaikh ministers in the cabinet and one of them is the chief cleric (Mufti) of the kingdom.
(One should not confuse the dour late Shaikh Mohammed Bin Abdulwahhab of Nejd with the late great Egyptian singer and musician Mohammed Abdel Wahab who was not a Salafi nor a Bin of any kind. Abdel Wahab of Egypt no doubt was much more fun to be around than his Nejdi counterpart).
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com