However, opposition to increasing fines if they are not paid in time is on the increase, even inviting condemnation from Grand Mufti Abdulaziz Al-Asheikh.

The country’s top religious authority has called the practice a form of usury (riba), which is one of the seven worst sins.

I am no religious scholar, but to me increasing fines if they are not paid by a certain date is the same thing as charging interest to debtors. But for their part, police leadership in Riyadh recently clarified they are not beholden to the grand mufti’s comments.

But that still leaves the common, religious man with a conundrum: What is he to do when law enforcement officers and religious authorities are at odds with each other? If the religious authority has declared increasing fines for late payment a sin, then what?

One recourse is the Court of Grievances, the final authority on administrative justice in the land. If people use the court to challenge the traffic authority’s views, perhaps the authority would abandon what has been deemed un-Islamic economic exploitation.

The traffic authority does have an option for compromise: Cut the initial fine in half for those who pay on time and then double that sum for late payment.