The tragic accident that took place last week in Al-Baha Region has touched the hearts and souls of all members of society. Different writers and columnists have talked about the mistakes that cost a husband his life and caused severe injuries to his wife and two children. It was a painful accident, no doubt.

I don’t want to do dig deep into the circumstances that gave rise to the accident for there are authorities investigating the case and they know more than what the media said about the accident. Rather, I’d like to focus on something else: The way members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai’a) deal with the general public.

It was said that the husband, Abdulrahman Ahmad Al-Ghamdi, who was with his family, had the car stereo’s volume turned up. He was approached by some Hai’a members. Minutes later, an altercation started when Hai’a members asked him to show them his ID. At this point, Abdulrahman decided to run away with his family and he got into the car and sped off with the Hai’a in close pursuit. The chase ended in a horrific accident.

I don’t want to get into the controversial issue about whether music is permitted or not in Islam. I want to focus on the way a government official should treat or deal with a citizen. Government officials are expected to have some kind of awareness which helps them differentiate between reacting to something as a person and as a governmental official.

Anyone who has to deal with the general public on a daily basis will encounter various situations. It is perfectly normal for one to get upset or feel provoked when he is not treated well. We are humans after all and we might lose our temple sometimes and react angrily. But officials should have more self-control. When provoked, the official should not take it personally. Instead, he should try to analyze the behavior of the angry person. By doing so, he will be able to remain composed and not lose his temper and react.

The other day, I was talking to a hotel receptionist in Paris, he was an Algerian and he told me that a man from a Gulf country called him names once and used foul language. However, the Algerian man had to keep silent because his job required him to have self-control. He told me that if this man said what he said to him in the street, he would’ve beaten the living daylights out of him because he felt really insulted.

I also recall a similar incident that happened in the US before my eyes. I was once on board a domestic flight when a man, who probably wasn’t American, told the flight attendant that he wanted to change his seat. He was tired and wanted to stretch his legs. The attendant smiled and told him she had to talk to her boss. Two minutes later, she came back and told him he couldn’t change seats because the rules didn’t allow it.

He kept arguing with her while she remained silent. She told him she would go and talk again to her boss and see if they could make an exception for him. She sympathized with his situation as the man looked really tired. She came back with another attendant and apologized to the passenger for not finding a vacant seat. They told him they would be glad to help him if he needed anything else. The man calmed down and thanked them.

The attendant was able to absorb his anger by not reacting to his actions on the spot. She gave him some time to relax before she got back to him. By doing so, she prepared him to accept the rejection of his request.


Something similar happened in one of the biggest hospitals in Riyadh but with different results. A patient asked a receptionist to schedule an appointment with the doctor. The employee did what he asked but he told the patient that he had to wait a few weeks before he could see the doctor. When the patient told the employee that he could not wait for such a long time, the employee reacted angrily and said “take it or leave it. I can’t do anything for you!” Furious, the patient spat on the employee who stepped out from behind his desk and got into a fight with the patient. It was a complete mess.

Although the patient was wrong, we cannot blame him. If we study his psychological state at the time, we will see that he reacted angrily because the employee spoke angrily to him. He was not professional. If the employee had told the patient that he would do his best to find an appointment where the patient could see the doctor in two or three days, the patient wouldn’t have gotten so angry in the first place.

Back to our topic, if a government official, or a Hai’a member for that matter, talks nicely and calmly with a young man and treats him with respect and tells him that he is not here to spoil his fun, the young man will thank the government official and apologize. To be this professional, it takes a lot of training and practice. We also need legislations to prevent officials from going over the board when they deal with citizens on a daily basis.