(Washington) …September 8, 2003 - SIA News – The Saudi government has announced that Barbie dolls are Jewish tools promoting the lewd behavior of what it calls the perverted Western world, according to a government poster distributed to Saudi schools, mosques and hospitals which has been obtained and translated by SIA news.
The poster, titled “The Jewish Doll”, is printed and distributed by the powerful Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, otherwise known as the religious police. This is a government agency headed by a Wahhabi cleric with ministerial rank appointed by King Fahd.
The poster includes photos of Barbie dolls that have been confiscated by religious police from local retail outlets, displayed in a special exhibition of goods which are deemed to have violated official religious teachings.
The Permanent Exhibition for Religious Contraventions is located at the headquarters of the religious police in Madina. It displays confiscated goods such as photographs, perfumes, and dolls among other confiscated items.
Saudi spokesman in Washington, Adel Al-Jubeir, refused to comment when SIA news asked him about the poster and the official propagation of religious hatred against Jews, Christians, Hindus and non-Wahhabi Muslims by government agencies and officials.
The power of the religious police emanates from the support of King Fahd and the powerful Interior Minister Prince Naif, who fund it generously.
In addition to their large annual budget, the religious police receive millions of dollars from the king in form of cash infusions, and new SUV’s, on annual bases.
On June 30, 2002 Al-Riyadh newspaper reported that King Fahd donated $1.25 million from his private covers to support the religious police’s work.
On May 18, Naif reiterated his support for the religious police in a press conference attended by western reporters. “The religious police are part of the government and are here to stay,” said Naif, who was angered by a Saudi journalist’s question regarding the possibility of it being dismantled.
The Barbie doll and similar posters are distributed to school children, worshipers at mosques, and hospital patients.
The agency’s official website uses “gov” net extension displays the government seal also found on the poster. To access the poster from the government website: http://www.hesbah.gov.sa/images/wrongdone/m04.jpg
Other confiscated items can be seen at: http://www.hesbah.gov.sa/contravention.asp
The website: http://www.hesbah.gov.sa/index.htm
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