CAIRO: Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi's spokesman said that a morality police does not exist in the country, despite reports of men proclaiming to be part of a “Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” being reported to have made public displays in the country over the past 7 months. Yasser Ali, Morsi's spokesman, said that no such committee exists in Egypt. “It's not true that there is such a committee; the incidents that have happened of late were all instigated by individuals and investigations are still underway,” he was quoted by state-run al-Ahram newspaper as saying. It comes on the heels of the murder of a 22-year-old man who was knifed down by reportedly “bearded men” after he was seen walking with his fiance. Ultra-conservative Salafist groups in the country have said they had nothing to do with the murder, adding that it was an attempt to sully their name to strike fear in Egyptians over the new Muslim Brotherhood tenure as president. “The law must be strictly brought to bear against any culprits,” Ali added, in alluding to the reports of the so-called “morality police” in the country. In early January, reports of vigilante gangs of ultra-conservative Salafi men have been harassing shop owners and female customers in rural towns around Egypt for “indecent behavior," according to reports in the Egyptian news media. Women, however, fought back. But when they burst into a beauty salon in the Nile delta town of Benha this week and ordered the women inside to stop what they were doing or face physical punishment, the women struck back, whipping them with their own canes before kicking them out to the street in front of an astonished crowd of onlookers. Modeling themselves after Saudi Arabia's morality police as a “Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice," the young men raided clothing and other retail shops around the Qalubiya province over New Year's weekend declaring they were there to enforce Islamic law, according to the Tahrir News. Shop owners were told they could no longer sell “indecent" clothing, barbers could no longer shave men's beards, and that all retail businesses should expect regular and surprise inspections to check for compliance. Frightened customers were ordered to cover up and threatened with severe punishment if they did not abide by “God's law on earth." But when the women in a Benha beauty salon stood up to the young Salafi enforcers, they found support on the streets as well as online, with one amused reader suggesting that women should be deputized to protect the revolution's democratic values. In addition to invading shops, the “morality police" also smashed Christmas trees and decorations in front of stores and malls, declaring the celebration of Christmas “haram" or forbidden. Salafi sheiks have also banned the sending of Christmas greetings, prompting the more moderate Muslim Brotherhood to broadcast messages of Christmas cheer to their Christian brethren. The conservative Salafi sect promotes the strict segregation of the sexes, with many Salafi women wearing the all-enveloping black niqab with eye slits. The group has worried the tourist industry with their pledge to ban alcohol and mixed-gender beaches. Coptic Christians who saw two of their churches torched by Salafis last spring fear further persecution. Online, a number of Facebook pages purporting to be a “morality police” have sprouted up in recent months, increasing fears that the campaigns are gaining traction. The Al Nour party's Facebook page however denied financing the group. In a desperate effort to gain control of their public message, Al Nour party officials have tried to control the actions of their followers and silence individual Salafi sheiks, like Abdel Moneim el Shahat in conservative Alexandria, who has suggested covering the “obscene" figures on Egypt's ancient monuments with wax. The young members of the morality police held their first meeting reportedly in January, according to a report in the Al Masry Al Youm newspaper, “to determine the tasks and geographical jurisdictions of the first volunteers, who would monitor people's behavior in the street and assess whether they contradicted God's laws. Volunteers would wear white cloaks and hold bamboo canes to beat violators and later would be provided with electric tasers."
