Saudi Shoura studying plan to merge religious police into Islamic Ministry

Agencies

September 20, 2017

Riyadh, Sept 20: The Shoura Council is currently studying a major proposal to merge the religious police, officially known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, into the Ministry of Islamic Affairs.

The plan is widely seen as a move to redesign and redefine the role of the religious police, as also to curb its powers further.

“This is not a plan or proposal from the Saudi government; rather, it is a proposal put forward by three members of the Shoura Council,” said Mohammad Al-Khunaizi, a Shoura member, on Tuesday. He said: “The Shoura Council is currently studying the merger proposal, while seeking the opinion of the members on this subject.”

Al-Khunaizi could neither confirm nor deny the fact that the proposal of merger of the commission into the Ministry of Islamic Affairs will go for voting next week. But, a Reuters report said: “The Shoura Council, an influential advisory body to the government, will vote on the proposal to merge the religious police into the Ministry of Islamic affairs, further curbing the force’s authority, next week.”

The report has quoted Atta Al-Thibaiti, a Shoura member, as saying the proposal had overcome initial opposition by the Shoura’s Committee on Islamic and Judicial Affairs.

The religious police, which have had the mandate to implement Islamic laws and better social ethics, patrol public spaces to enforce bans on alcohol, obscenity, abnormal behavior, store closures during prayer times, and the mixing of unrelated men and women. It also imposes strict modesty requirements on women’s dress, as well as on men, especially youngsters chasing women and philandering.

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Israel killing Palestinian children in Gaza every day despite ceasefire: UNICEF

News Network

November 22,2025

The Israeli regime’s forces have killed two Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip every day since the ceasefire began in early October, UNICEF has warned.

The UN children’s agency said on Friday that Israeli forces continue to attack Palestinians in Gaza even though the agreement was meant to stop the killing.

“Since 11 October, while the ceasefire has been in effect, at least 67 children have been killed in conflict-related incidents in the Gaza Strip. Dozens more have been injured. That is an average of almost two children killed every day since the ceasefire took effect,” UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires said in Geneva, reminding that each number in the statistics represents a child whose life had ended violently.

“These are not statistics,” he said. “Each child had a story, a family, and a future that was stolen from them.”

Data from Palestinian factions, human rights groups, and government bodies recorded since the US-brokered ceasefire deal went into effect on October 10 show that Israeli forces have carried out numerous attacks, each constituting a separate ceasefire violation.

UNICEF teams say they repeatedly continue to witness heart-wrenching scenes of fearful Palestinian children sleeping outdoors with amputated limbs, while others live as orphans in flooded, makeshift shelters.

“I saw this myself in August. There is no safe place for them. The world cannot normalize their suffering,” Pires said, lamenting that the UN could “do a lot more if the aid that is really needed was entering faster.”

The UNICEF spokesperson warned that with the advent of winter, the risks for hundreds of thousands of displaced children will increase.

He warned, “The stakes are incredibly high” for children as winter acts as a threat multiplier, where children have no heating, no insulation, and few blankets. He said respiratory infections rise.

“Too many children have already paid the highest price,” Pires said. “Too many are still paying it, even under a ceasefire. The world promised them it would stop and that we would protect them.”

“Now we must act like it,” the UNICEF spokesperson added.

Since the Israeli regime launched its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023, it has killed nearly 70,000 people in the territory, most of them women and children, and injured over 170,000 more, while reducing most of the structures in the enclave to rubble.

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