A group of religious extremists disrupted the annual Riyadh Book Fair yesterday, accusing both visitors and organisers of "immoral practices" and confronting the Saudi culture minister, whose department organises the event.

Arab News suggests the troublemakers were members of the religious police – the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice – though they did not present ID cards and the commission denies any connection with them.

Besides objecting to "questionable books and authors", they complained about gender-mixing at the fair. The Saudi Gazettereports:

The group surrounded the Saudi TV booth for over one-and-a-half hours protesting what it called the presence of female broadcasters covering the event and demanded they leave immediately. 

The police, however, managed to disperse the group after it kept heckling the visitors and organizers. 

A female journalist, who wanted to be anonymous, said that the group stopped her from taking photos of the event. "Photos are haram (impermissible in Islam),” they told her, she said. “They even accused me of flirting with them,” she added. The journalist said she reported the incident to the police. 

A female nurse from the Ministry of Health, who was attending the event, said the group called her “lewd” despite wearing her Muslim veil. ”It was devastating and I had to leave immediately,” she said.

The group of six or more were eventually removed by the police and three were reportedly detained.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 3 March 2011.