Saudi Arabia's religious police – the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice – have reported a 20% drop in the number of cases they handled since last year, saying this is due to a "fear of negative media portrayal".

The often-thuggish behaviour of the religious police has been much criticised, both outside the kingdom and inside, and they have come under pressure to wear uniforms and identify themselves properly when intervening with members of the public.

Despite the drop, though, they still recorded 55,000 cases last year – most of which (39,301) involved non-Saudi citizens.

Of the 16,650 cases involving Saudi citizens, the majority (around 10,000) concerned "belief and worship" issues. Conflict between Saudi citizens and the religious police over "belief and worship" seems to be increasing, at least in Mecca and Riyadh, according to the report.

Writing in the Crossroads Arabia blog, John Burgess comments:

"... the entire concept of 'religious police' is one whose time has passed, if it ever really existed. But less activity on their part is definitely better than more.

"I do recognise that many Saudis believe that there is not only a role for religious police to be playing, but an actual, religiously mandated duty to do so. I disagree. Criminal behaviour can be handled by the police; a second layer of authority assessing the morality of people’s behavior does not change that behavior: it just sends it deeper underground while opening the door to more instances of improper behavior by the Haya [religious police], thus diminishing respect for Islam. 

"Moral behaviour is not something that can be effectively controlled by authority; too often it turns into an excuse for expanding authority and authoritarianism."

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 29 October 2010.