Islamic religious police

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Islamic religious police (also known as morality police or sharia police) are official Islamic religious enforcement agencies, often found in Muslim-majority countries, that oversee religious observance and public morality on behalf of national or regional authorities, based on their interpretation of sharia. Modern Islamic religious police organizations were first established in the late 1970s during the Iranian Revolution and the wider Islamic revival it helped stimulate across the Muslim world. Before this period, the regulation of public morality in most Muslim-majority states was generally treated as a socio-religious matter and enforced through civil law or more informal community mechanisms. The powers and responsibilities of Islamic religious police vary by country. Unlike conventional police forces, which focus on crimes such as robbery and murder, Islamic religious police typically enforce prohibitions against the consumption of alcohol by Muslims, the mixing of unrelated men...

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