In the featured article at Human Events today I discuss the joyless reaction to Valentine's Day in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Good grief. No Valentines for you, Charlie Brown. At least not in Kuwait. And no roses or cards with red hearts for you, Lucy. Not in Saudi Arabia. The ever-tolerant Muslim world is now condemning Valentine’s Day.Jamaan al-Harbash, a member of the Kuwaiti parliament, has called for Valentine’s Day celebrations to be banned. “We call on the commerce minister,” he declared in a fine froth of moral indignation, “to perform his duties by banning celebrations of Valentine’s Day which is alien to our society -- and contradicts our religion’s values and teachings.” Another Kuwaiti MP, Waleed al-Tabtabai, chief of a committee in parliament that monitors “alien practices,” said his committee will undertake a study this week on how to stop Valentine’s Day from initiating the “moral corruption” of Kuwaiti youth.
Over in Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, the notorious religious police who go by the name of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice have banned red roses. The Virtue Cops have even ordered florists and gift shops in Riyadh to take any red item off the shelf, lest Saudi lovebirds associate red with hearts and start a-spooning. Nothing new in that: in 2004, the Saudi fatwa committee forbade Saudis from celebrating the day: “It is a pagan Christian holiday and Muslims who believe in God and Judgment Day should not celebrate or acknowledge it or congratulate (people on it). It is a duty to shun it to avoid God’s anger and punishment.”
This is not just an Arabian Peninsula thing, either. Last year in Malaysia, a government official, Muhammad Ramli Nuh, declared, according to the Bernama News Agency, that “celebrating the Day could be regarded as recognizing the enemies of Islam because Valentine or Valentinus took part in planning and attacking Cordoba, once a well-known centre of Islam in Spain, causing its downfall.” Actually, St. Valentine was a third-century Christian martyr in the Roman Empire, but give Muhammad Ramli Nuh points for imagination.
All this indicates that in at least some parts of the Islamic world the dour spirit of the Ayatollah Khomeini is alive and well. For it was Khomeini, a man who took pains to make sure he was never photographed smiling, who once gave vent to this classic statement of religion-based dyspepsia: “Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious.” Likewise the jihad theorist Sayyid Qutb, after an unhappy sojourn in America in the late 1940s, complained about that Americans even “go to church for carousal and enjoyment, or, as they call it in their language, ‘fun.’”Ok, students, let’s review: the Islamic jihadists promise poverty, hardship and prayer, from which people are released only at death -- which can be hurried along by strapping a bomb on yourself and detonating near some people you don’t like. Such as those Americans who are so misguided that their Declaration of Independence actually enumerates rights (which they -- how dare they? -- believe are endowed by God) to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Clash of civilizations? If there was ever any indication that it is upon us, it is this. The gulf between that noted American philosopher Dr. Seuss’s lapidary phrase, “These things are fun, and fun is good” and Khomeini’s barren “There is no fun in Islam” is yawning and unbridgeable. Many analysts and policymakers have remarked that the threat of the worldwide jihad has an ideological dimension, but political correctness, multiculturalism, and a fear of offending religious sensibilities have prevented most from articulating this dimension in any meaningful way. Perhaps the annual assault on Valentine’s Day, renewed again this year, points the way: the global jihad pits the civilization of fun and joy against the civilization of anger, rage, and dreariness.
As the controversy continues this week over Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams’s avowal that Britain’s adoption of some elements of Islamic Sharia law is “unavoidable,” it might be useful to bear that in mind. And remember, also, that it was a Muslim woman, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, who replied that what Williams “wishes on us is an abomination.” Those who have suffered from the latest crackdowns in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait would no doubt agree -- and would probably even ally with the West against the forces of Islamist gloom, given half a chance.
But will there be any Western leaders willing or courageous enough to cast off their multiculturalist shackles and give those people heart -- during this Valentine’s Day week -- by affirming that our struggle is one for simple joy in existence, against those who would rob us of that joy?
Islamo-chocolate jihad in the UK:
An interesting discovery in the UK from the Illustrated PIG:
http://illustratedpig.blogspot.com/2008/02/islamc-humour.html
Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious.
--- Ayotollah Khomeini declaring morbidity as a virtue after taking the helm in Iran
* 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 *
Aw c'mon. When the old pederast found time between his 9-yr old boys, he, a devout worshipper of the pedophilic tradition of Mohammed's sunnah, factored in some fun for the playgronds-in-trench coats crowd.
The legal minimum age at marriage for girls was reduced from sixteen to nine years after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Re: Jamaan al-Harbash, a member of the Kuwaiti parliament, has called for Valentine’s Day celebrations to be banned. “We call on the commerce minister,” he declared in a fine froth of moral indignation, “to perform his duties by banning celebrations of Valentine’s Day which is alien to our society -- and contradicts our religion’s values and teachings.”
A lot of these guys need to get laid. He needs to go to Brazil in Carnival. I can just see him raving as the T & A pass in Rio.
However, he does have a gut understanding of what "culture" is about as he rejects "multiculturalism", though his rejection of Saint Valentine's Day is based on dogma and assumptions of Islamic supremacism.
Healthy societies make reasoned (not dogmatic) judgements about what is good and what is bad in other cultures and copy the good and keep out the bad. We have to relearn to make judgements about good and bad-based on reason (especially with regard to Islam). We have been indoctrinated to think that such judgements are "racist", bigoted, etc. ("Making no judgements makes you a good person. Not thinking makes you a good person".)
This guy makes cultural judgements based on dogma, not reason, and has a petrified concept of culture. He represents what is bad in Islam. It's a very disturbed aspect of Islam, sick, inhuman.
Charlie Brown's kite must've really gone astray for him it wind up in Kuwait.
And nothing's going to help Charlie Brown anyway. :(
I had just finished handing out Valentines to veterans in the hospital before I read this story.
Made reading it even better...
Vive la Resistance!
New York State's flower is....the rose. So, since "Great Satan" and "Little Satan" are taken already, does that make us the "Middling Satan"?
(Ah, but we're in such good company!)
There is no love in Islam!
For all those "Seinfeld" fans out there.
Rose Nazi. "No red rose for you!!"
Ibrahim Desai and his like minded purveryors of internet Islamic opinions have not only forbade celebration of Valentine's Day, but also Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Thanksgiving. In a general way Muslims are also told that thay are not allowed to imitate us, the ugly, ape-like infidels.
These special days are innovation and are sinful. Mohammed did not even celebrate birthdays, so true blue Mohammedans cannot celebrate or even recognize birthdays. Muslims who ask about birthday parties are told that they are sinful.
It goes far beyond an aversion of only Valentines day.
I previously posted an opinion (fatwa) about schoolgraduation ceramonies and how Muslims must not participate.
Some people still have that pie in the sky hope that Mulsim can somehow be assimilated into our societies.
Here is an Islamic explanation of Valentines Day:
http://www.islam.tc/ask-imam/view.php?q=11104
Another one:
http://www.islam.tc/ask-imam/view.php?q=4964
Here is a very long anti-birthday opinion:
http://www.islam.tc/ask-imam/view.php?q=6627
Muslims ask their Imams inane, to me, questions covering every aspect of life. Study these Internet opinion mills, you'll learn a lot in just a few hours;
http://islam.tc/ask-imam/index.php
http://islamqa.com/index.php?ln=eng
http://www.islamonline.net/livefatwa/english/Browse.asp?hGuestID=lI2P2A
By the way, even atheists take part in Valentine's Day. No atheist that I know is going to advise anyone to shun celebrations that are based on religious tradition.
I'll bet the only thing they like about the Fourth of July is the explosions.
Who among us is big enough to laugh at our own stupid antics? This is difficult for lots of non muslims and impossible for muslims. 'The gods created the world, and then they laughed', an ancient saying indicating some kind of huge joke.
Perverse humor is better than no humor at all.
The Ayatollah is right, Islam is not fun. Allah is not fun. But of course, that is a huge part of the problem. I think some muslims have fun, but it is in spite of Allah and the Ayatollah. Muslims need to learn to turn hostility into laughter. To see the folly, not just in the antics of stupid infidels, but in their own thoughts and a actions. Real laughter could cure Islam of all it's ills, and make itself a good religion. Without laughter it is a mistake. Allah should have thought of that...
Will they also ban chocolates?
duh_swami,
Probably have already. After all how could Mo have had chocolate, the New World was still off the edge of the Earth.:)
Yes, Pelayo,
"Music, singing, video filming, and the taking of photographs," (among many other things) are "un-Islamic and forbidden" -- just Ask The Imam.
Wailing, destruction, and killing of other human beings for the Cause of Allah and his deen, Islam, is, on the other hand, quite permitted, laudable, and expected. Go figure[quite haram].
Those who have suffered from the latest crackdowns in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait would no doubt agree -- and would probably even ally with the West against the forces of Islamist gloom, given half a chance.
Robert,
I once believed this but no more. The people of Kuwait especially have been given ample chance to ally with the West. The Saudis have had a similar chance. They have had many chances. From Stalin to Saddam, they have been threatened. They accept Western protection when the need arises and then stab us in the back the first chance they get. The difference between them and the forces of Islamist gloom is merely one of degree. Both share the same basic ideology. Only the method of attainment differs, barely.
Oh burn all those hearts. It makes great grievance theatre.
Love Nazi's!
Looks like he's scolding his audience - with his index fingers raised high above his head like that. And further more!!!!....blah, blah, blah
I don't think I could sit through 5 minutes of this guy without wanting to raise a finger of my own.