Saudi Arabia's highest religious authority bans camera phones

I saw this Associated Press article when it first came out but didn't have a chance to post it. The Saudi Arabian government previously banned camera phones and now the country's highest religious authority, Sheik Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah Al al-Sheik, says people should not use them.

Quoted in the al-Madina daily newspaper on Tuesday, he say camera phones were "spreading obscenity in Muslim society." He says " "All citizens should renounce this... for it can harm everybody without discrimination."

The article quotes a few Arab analysts who say the ban is a social issue and also has security implications. Sultan al-Bazie, a media consultant and analyst quoted in the article, "The war on terrorism is giving the authorities a good excuse to impose more and more restrictions.

"This is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut."

Conservative society

Saudi Arabia is, of course, an extremely conservative society. In Western cultures it's often considered cool -- or just plain fun or useful -- for men and women to posts of themselves or for friends, relatives or even stranger to post them.

In Saudi Arabia, photos of a woman on the Internet would be considered by many people to be disgraceful.

In December the Saudi Interior Ministry banned the importation of dolls and stuffed animals, the article says.

Will the camera phone ban be effective?

Even though Saudi Arabia has banned camera phones, people still want them an a black market has sprung up, as I've previously written.

The AP article questions whether a camera phone ban will be effective. Several years ago the government banned satellite dishes to appease the ultra-religious groups who opposed people watching foreign films where women weren't wearing veils...or worse.

"Despite the ban, rooftops in every Saudi city are covered with them, and subscriptions to a variety of foreign channels are freely sold, the article notes.

Comments

[Brian]

It's amazing how one country is different from the next. I wouldn't be able to handle it. Maybe times will change, but it's to bad a government has that much control over the people. Reading stuff like that makes me happy I live in an open society like the United States.