Scenes from a Saudi Mall - Part II

Saudi Jeans is blogging again and recounts a scary incident at the Al-Mamlaka mall:

It was almost Maghrib (sunset) prayer time, and we were done with our shopping, but we had to wait for a friend of ours to pick us up.

We sat at the food court. A few minutes later, most of the employees at the mall came and sat there. They were chatting, smoking, and killing time, waiting for the prayer time to end so they can go back to their jobs.

Later, we heard some screams, and saw some guys running. "Oh, shit! It's the religious police. Run away!" my friend said. We jumped from our seats, looking for the nearest exit. We took the escalator, and had to leave the mall using the gates of the parking lot.

It was so embarrassing to see tens of twenty-something-year-old healthy men run away at the sight of a bearded man. Of course, the man was companioned by a policeman to protect him, but I think they were doing nothing to be afraid. Are we ever going to get rid of these harassments? When these idiotic religious policemen will stop attacking people's freedoms, and denying their right to choose?

Farah offers her own blogpost about a recent excursion to the Al-Mamlaka mall during Saudi National Day (a celebration of the ruling Saud family). And Saudi Jeans is looking for a female to help him get into IKEA.

UPDATE: Here is a handy guide to the official website of the Saudi Religious Police.