Word that authorities were coming spread through Riyadh's rundown, busy Batha market. Merchants hastily dropped their shutters. Shoppers hid, some ran, some were caught.
It wasn't a narcotics bust or one of the government's widely publicized raids on suspected terrorists. This was a sweep by the muttawas, or religious police, rounding up Muslim men — Saudis and foreigners alike — and forcing them to go to the mosque at prayer time.
The muttawas, backed by the Saudi government, say they are simply working for Islam. But some see them as symbols of intolerance that can breed extremism, and their methods and philosophy are coming under scrutiny as Saudis confront terrorism at home.
Ghassan Ahmed, a 32-year-old Saudi businessman, said the muttawas were "there to punish and not protect."
"It's because of people like these that Saudi Arabia gets a bad image outside. They have turned our beautiful religion upside down," he said.
Abdumohsin Addawood, a political analyst at Riyadh's Imam Mohammed bin Saudi Islamic University, said "interaction and dialogue" was needed to curb some overzealous muttawas. But he said the entire system shouldn't be thrown out.
"If we go to the roots of Islam, there should be people trying to remind others of the virtue of doing right, because people tend to be lazy and forget," Addawood said. "The role of the muttawas is to advise or remind and not to force, but unfortunately some are overdoing it."
Muttawas are easy to spot with their untrimmed beards and calf-length robes adopted from the times of the 7th century Muslim prophet, Muhammad. Officially, they are agents of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, whose chief has Cabinet rank. Officials of the committee could not be reached for comment, despite repeated calls from The Associated Press.
The influence of the muttawas is rooted in the special relationship between the Saudi royal family and the religious establishment. An alliance between the Saudi dynasty and Sheik Mohammad Abdul-Wahab, the 18th century founder of the country's strict Islamic doctrine, helped bring the Al Sauds to power.
"There is nothing wrong in guiding and showing people the right path," said Mohammed, a 22-year-old Saudi who is studying religion in hopes of becoming a muttawa. He gave only his first name, for fear speaking publicly about the muttawas would ruin his chances of becoming one.
That path, according to the Saudi version of Islam, is a narrow one.
Men must go to the mosque to pray five times a day. Alcohol is banned in Saudi Arabia, which has no movie theaters. Women — Muslim and non-Muslim —have to cover themselves from head to toe in public. Unrelated men and women are not allowed to mingle in shops, restaurants or on the streets. Women cannot drive, and can only be driven by a relative or a professional driver. The sexes are segregated in government establishments like schools and workplaces.
Muttawas, armed with knowledge of Islam and sometimes with sticks or camel-hide whips, roam in four-wheel-drive vehicles. Those who have run afoul of the muttawas say they cannot be reasoned with or bribed, only endured.
"Every time I see them I just make a run for it," said Farid, a 27-year-old electronics salesman from Bangladesh who has a shop in Batha market.
Farid, a Muslim, remembers the time he got caught. The muttawas frog-marched him to the mosque, where he had to sit through an hour-long lecture on religion. Repeat violators can be jailed or deported.
"If someone wants to pray he will, but no one has the right to impose religion" on others, said Farid, who gave only his first name.
Batha market is a popular hunting ground for the muttawa. Thousands of Saudis and foreigners — mostly Asians from the Indian subcontinent or the Far East — converge every day on the busy network of shopping centers stretching several miles in all directions.
Under Saudi law, all citizens must be Muslim. Non-Muslim foreigners sometimes get caught up in the muttawa sweeps. The kingdom forbids non-Muslim public worship among the country's estimated 7 million expatriate workers, around half a million of whom are Christian. The kingdom also prohibits non-Muslim religious literature and public display of the symbols of other religions.
Larry, 39, a computer programmer from the Philippines who gave only his first name, said he had been jailed for a day on three different occasions, including once for possessing a Bible.
"I told them that Christianity is my parents' gift to me and they let me go" after confiscating his Bible, Larry said.
In January, at least half a dozen Christian Filipinos were deported, after the muttawas found them holding religious gatherings, a diplomat in the kingdom said on condition of anonymity. Several others reportedly were arrested and deported in sweeps in 1998 and 1999 for similar reasons, including distributing Christian literature in Arabic.
Some Saudis are questioning whether the Islam enforced by the muttawa feeds militancy. Most of the suicide hijackers who committed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States were Saudi, and such violence came home with a series of May 12 suicide bombings in the Saudi capital. Despite a crackdown since May that has seen some 600 arrests, suicide bombers struck again in Riyadh on Nov. 8.
The Sept. 11 attacks and the Riyadh suicide bombings all have been blamed on al-Qaida, the terror network that has declared the Saudi ruling family too close to the United States and insufficiently Islamic.
As rulers of the birthplace of Islam and guardian of the faith's two holiest shrines, the Saudi royal family cannot afford to have its Islamic credentials questioned.