Vigilante Morality Police Attempt To Enforce Islamic Law In Rural Egypt

Bikya Masr reported this week that in rural towns in Egypt, vigilante gangs of conservative Salafi Muslim men have formed themselves into a Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice to enforce Islamic law.  They have been harassing shop owners and women, telling stores they should stop selling "indecent" clothing and telling barbers to stop shaving Muslim men. However when the self-styled morality police rushed into a beauty salon in the town of Benha, the women patrons struck back beating the men with their own canes and kicking them out into the street. Sheiks from Cairo’s Al Azhar mosque and university have denied the legitimacy of the vigilante groups, and the al Nour Party denied that it financed the morality police groups.