Saudi Religious Cops Have Joined Twitter, That 'Source Of Evil'

Saudi Arabia's religious police has now got into Twitter. It looks to many like a public relations drive, and has got 66,000 followers.

But will they really improve their public image, going by the acts they have committed? Or will the image worsen?

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) opened an account on Twitter on Friday, and went under the username @PvGovSa.

Haia is strict, especially preventing women from driving, even though there is no law against the act. But its image made Twitter user Ahmed Al Omran post on April 24: "You better behave, because the Saudi religious police is now on Twitter: @pvgovsa...." according to arabianbusiness.

Strangely, for two years, the religious police was opposed to Twittering, according to rt. In May 2013, Saudi Arabia's religious police head, Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, issued a warning to its members that Twitter should not be used. He said that a user of Twitter "has lost this world and his afterlife," and that "Twitter was a platform for those who did not have any platform," the BBC reported.

In October, he added that Twitter is "the source of all evil and devastation." He added: "People are rushing to it thinking it's a source of credible information but it's a source of lies and falsehood."

Perhaps he is going to twist his tweets to suit his requirement. The first tweet from the religious police read: "In the name of Allah and Allah's blessing kicks off the official account of the General Presidency for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice on Twitter asking Allah to benefit by everyone."

This was followed by another tweet that presented the commission's President, Abdul Rahman Al-Sanad pegging away on a computer. The Haia had made up its mind to use the social network platform in order to improve its public image.

However, last March, about eight million Saudis or 41 percent of the population was said to have Twitter accounts, which, on average, they used in order to send around 1 million tweets every 24 hours.

Still, in February 2014, Riyadh had passed some laws that called it terrorist to "insult the reputation of the state or its position," so that the users had to word their tweets with caution.

A Saudi blogger, Raif Badawi, was punished with 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for "insulting Islam," after he partnered the 'Free Saudi Liberals' website to discuss religion in Saudi Arabia.