Religious quasi-police group organizes in Tunisia

A self-declared "Association of the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" is being organized in Tunisia, in what appears to be patterned after the religious police in Saudi Arabia.

The organizers hope to create an Islamic legal authority that stands on its own and does not depend on rulings from imams in other countries.

While Tunisian law does not allow for the creation of political parties on a purely religious basis, this is not a political party.

Secularists in Tunisia are fearful that the group will start intimidating or forcing people to go to prayer services, or to stop eating during Ramadan.

The leader of the movement denies any intent to be like the Saudi religious police.