“The only way to end the crisis in Iran is to end the intervention of clerics in politics”

Lhe Iranian morality police have been in the news since Mahsa Amini’s arrest for an inappropriate veil and the young woman’s death [le 16 septembre] following the beatings received in its premises.

Many videos posted on social networks show the aggressiveness of this police killing men and women because they have another conception of morality or because they claim their right to freedom and dignity.

At the origin of the morality police is the Islamic principle “Order the proper and denounce the blameworthy”, mentioned in several Koranic verses. Verses that the jurists of the first centuries of Islam chose, for political reasons, to the detriment of those who recommend respect for individual freedoms, such as verse 105 of sura 5, The Table Served: “O believers! You are responsible for yourselves! He who goes astray will not harm you if you have taken the right path. »

In his work The Perfection of the sciences of the Koran, the theologian Al-Suyuti (1445-1505) tells that this verse was abrogated by the rule “Order the proper and denounce the blameworthy”.

“For Sunnis, ‘ordaining the proper and exposing the blameworthy’ is one of the most important tenets of Islam. It is constantly recalled as a foundation of all social and moral theory.

The role of the morality police is to ensure compliance with the precepts of Islam. In reality, the verses that mention this principle do not give any details on how to implement it, which makes Muslims refer more to a hadith [propos] of the Prophet in which he would have said: “He who sees evil, let him change it with his hand. If he can’t, with speech. If he cannot, with the heart, and that is the last degree of faith. »

According to this hadith, the individual does not just watch and judge the behavior of the other. He also intervenes to prevent him from committing evil or to put an end to what he judges to be immoral behavior. Muslims also refer to the jurisprudence of early jurists and theologians, who decided that this principle was a moral and religious duty that not only the individual should perform, but also the one who holds authority, i.e. say the state.

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For Sunnis, “Order the proper and denounce the blameworthy” is one of the most important tenets of Islam. It is constantly recalled as a foundation of all social and moral theory; proof of this is that morality police also exist in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.

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