You’re right that the effect–for the girls–was the same. The effect on Saudi society and the religious establishment, however, was significant.

Saudi media carried different reports, as I noted above. Some even said that the religious police did nothing to prevent girls’ leaving or firemen’s entry. The majority of the reports, however, said that the religious police were responsible for the girls’ death.

As a result of an investigation into the incident, girls education was taken away from the Presidency of Girls Education, an element of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and put alongside boys education in the Ministry of Education. The Presidency was abolished. It was found to have been responsible for numerous violations of the school fire code and other school regulations.

While the official did not criticize the religious police directly, the Ministry of Religious Affairs took an enormous hit both in Saudi society and in its position within the government.

The religious police continue to have their wings clipped by the government, as I report regularly at Crossroads Arabia. Most recently, they’ve been prohibited from taking anyone into custody. They must now hand the miscreant over to the regular police.

Just shove the wreath you want to place at Ground Zero, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Those are my words and so are these: if you try to set one foot on where the terrorists your regime supported murdered a member of my family and 3,000 others, I will be there standing in your way.

Good for them, although I hope it isn’t necessary.

Reports conflict, but the least favorable telling of the story is that when a girls school in Mecca caught fire in 2002, Saudi religious police either forbade them to leave the building or prevented firemen from entering it (because they were unrelated males).

Oh, so they only forced the girls to burn to death instead of shooting them. Thanks for clearing that up – it puts the Wahhabists in a much better light.

(/sarc)

No Saudi school girls were shot while trying to flee a burning school. Reports conflict, but the least favorable telling of the story is that when a girls school in Mecca caught fire in 2002, Saudi religious police either forbade them to leave the building or prevented firemen from entering it (because they were unrelated males).

That’s quite bad enough. It’s really not necessary to turn the story into a shooting gallery for flaming girls.

This is the new left. This makes sense to these people. Its all about intellectual debate. None of it is real, just theory and debate. They enjoy their own freedom of speech and expression but take absolutely NO responsibility for what they sa…