Saudi men held for dancing at birthday party

Saudi Arabia’s morality police detained a group of young men for dancing at a birthday party and referred them to prosecutors, according to a state-linked media report.

The news website Ayn al-Youm reported Saturday that the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice raided a private property in the city of Buraydah, arresting the men inside for “loud music and inappropriate dancing”.

Buraydah is the provincial capital of Saudi Arabia’s Qassim province, which is home to some of the kingdom’s most conservative clerics.

An unnamed official told the website that when members of the morality police raided the private property, they found the young men in “a comprising situation in their dance and shameful movements”.

The official said there was also a cake and candles to celebrate one of the men’s birthdays.

The official said the men’s hairstyles and dress were not traditional, and urged parents to monitor this kind of behaviour “because it can lead to immorality and even homosexuality”.

Shortly after King Salman ascended to the throne last month, he relieved Sheikh Abdullatif al-Sheikh — seen as a reformer— as head of the religious police.