In Indonesia, vigilantes evolved from using sticks and stones to attack people in the name of upholding morality and curbing "deviance" to using guns and bombs.
Even if a degree-holding scholar was never appointed to an official government post, he nonetheless felt himself responsible for upholding morality in society, and became an elite member of his community.
Censorship of the Web is nothing new in Pakistan, which, like other countries in the region, says it wants to uphold public morality, protect national security or prevent blasphemy.
While the 9 p.m. closing time for liquor sales went into effect in August, one of the last relics of Puritan efforts to protect the sanctity of the Sabbath and uphold public morality had endured.
The draft charter also stipulates that a purpose of the news media is to uphold public morality and the "true nature of the Egyptian family," and specifies that government authorization may be required to operate a television station or a Web site.
He added: "Some of those who go to United States or Western countries get indoctrinated with the mischievous plots of the Western World to continue their aggression against the world's greatest civilization which uphold the morality and cultural heritage dating back to million years".
"We would like to remind the public to uphold social morality and use our fitting rooms in a correct and proper way," the company said in a statement. .
Only in the realm of sex is there a consistent body of law upholding morality.
Acts of violence committed in the name of the extreme "Christian Identity" ideology also come to mind, as do the exploits of the Ku Klux Klan, which portrayed itself as upholding Christian morality during its terror spree in the 20th Century.
His biblical message was believed by the religious to undermine morality, not uphold it.
