Jisr al-Shughour | Radical members humiliate muezzin of mosque, accusing him of “heresy”

SOHR sources have reported today that a group of members of the radical factions beat and humiliated a muezzin of a mosque (the person who makes the call to prayer) in Jisr al-Shughour area, west of Idlib, humiliating him in front of his family and children and stepped on his head in a scene similar to those practices committed by the Syrian regime’s security forces.

According to Observatory sources, the radical groups are prohibiting and punishing the “heresy”. The muezzin was accused of “adding suspense” before dawn prayer in Ramadan. 

On May 11, reliable sources told the Syrian Observatory that HTS reactivated the committee of “Arms of Charity” in areas under its control in Idlib, but this time under the name of “The Center of Salvation” for “the promotion of virtue and the prevention of vice”, two years after”Arms of Charity” being suspended after considerable popular pressure, following the many restrictions it imposed during its existence as well as arbitrary arrests and clamping down on people.

The Syrian Observatory has obtained a copy of a list containing some of the prohibitions that the “committee for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice” will impose, which says:

– Mingling in restaurants, offices and other places to be prevented.

– A woman without a companion from her parents or relatives is not allowed to be alone with a shopkeeper.

-Preventing men from selling women’s clothes.  

– Following-up the wedding halls and gyms and prevent reprehensible acts in them.

– Smoking hookah (Narghileh) in streets, shops and restaurants.

– Banning some haircuts and tightening measures on barbers.

-Preventing cases of harassment, accosting and standing outside educational institutions and offices.

– Prevent reprehensible acts and pictures or posters placed in shops and others places.

– Mingling of young people with girls in educational institutes to be prevented.