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Saudi Arabia: Religious police ban Valentine’s Day

Feb 14, 2014 9:44 am By Robert Spencer

283688,xcitefun-sorry-valentine-day-i-m-muslim-1Yet there are all sorts of people in Saudi Arabia who take this occasion to express their love for one another, thereby showing that the human heart and the human soul cannot ultimately be contained by a restrictive and repressive ideology that declares so much of ordinary human affection and interaction out of bounds and sinful. This is a sign of hope in a larger sense, like the blades of grass poking through the concrete that Solzhenitsyn noticed even in the darkest days of living under the Soviet boot.

“Valentine’s Day is banned by the religious police in Saudi Arabia,” from AFP, February 14:

RED ROSES LURK hidden in flower shop back rooms and heart-shaped chocolates are sold under the counter, but Saudis still manage to buy Valentine’s gifts and defy the religious police.

Florist Hussein came up with a simple solution to a ban on red tokens of love: he filled his window with white roses, orange irises and violet hydrangeas.

“I’ve hidden everything red in the shop, so when a religious police patrol comes along, they find nothing to complain about,” he said.

Anti-Valentine’s Day patrols by the Muttawa religious police, formally known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, started on Wednesday.

They began entering premises stocking chocolates, flowers and souvenirs to warn proprietors against selling anything red or heart-shaped and linked to the annual “infidel celebration” of matters romantic.

Saudi Arabia applies a rigorous interpretation of Islam under which the sexes are strictly segregated and any public display of affection is completely taboo.

It is also the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive.

Hussein’s shop window may be blooming with white, orange and violet, but he still has the real thing, red roses, out the back.

“I’ve sold at least 350 red roses at 20 riyals (€3.90) a pop,” he said.

Many women call us on the phone to order roses, because they fear the religious police.

Kumar, another florist, was persuaded by a Muttawa visit not even to consider flouting the Valentine’s Day ban, however.

“We’re going to sell these to a chocolate shop,” he said, pointing to bouquets of red flowers in a back room of his store.

Confectioners do have chocolate hearts for discreet sale, but only to the right people.

“Of course we have them, but the religious police came by and warned us against selling them,” said one chocolate shop owner who asked not to be identified.

“We hid them because we don’t want any problems,” he added, smiling, indicating that an illicit transaction involving the chocolate contraband would be more than acceptable.

It’s only chocolate!

In another shop in a commercial district of the capital, an Egyptian employee said the religious police had told them not to sell heart-shaped chocolate or sweets wrapped in red paper.

One man browsing in the shop was clearly unhappy: “Why are they forbidden? It’s only chocolate!” he complained.

Another customer, an older man, shot him a dark look.

Only a liberal fringe of Saudis actually celebrates Valentine’s Day in an ultra-conservative society in which clerics and their pronouncements are widely respected.

One of the most popular, Mohammed al-Oreifi, this year took to Twitter where he has hundreds of thousands of followers, decreeing that those in the kingdom who celebrate Valentine’s Day “want to copy the infidels”.

However, not everywhere in Saudi Arabia is the ban strictly enforced.

In the Red Sea port of Jeddah, the country’s commercial capital in the west, a more liberal attitude towards the lovers’ festival can be noted.

This year, some florists have been openly selling red roses, and are unafraid to give their names.

“The religious police didn’t come. We’re doing nothing wrong anyway,” said Abu Zakaria, who runs a flower shop in the north of the city.

Another man, Thamer Hussein, said some people with romantic yearnings marked the Valentine’s festival a day in advance, to ensure the experience was hassle-free.

“Some young people celebrated St Valentine’s Day on Wednesday evening, with small parties and exchanges of gifts,” he said.

In this way they managed to avoid the attentions of the Muttawa, who are expected to perform their duties religiously on Friday, ensuring that for unmarried couples a quick canoodle is definitely unacceptable.

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Filed Under: Islamic bigotry and intolerance Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. pdxnag says

    Feb 14, 2014 at 10:11 am

    Is it Islamophobic to celebrate love? (Offenders should be on OIC’s annual report.)

    Tyranny and oppression does require a team of thugs that posses at least a modest work ethic. And terror must be continually refreshed no matter how meek and mild the population. That is, total submission would never be enough. Is there anything that is more obvious at proving this principal than an anti-Valentine campaign?

    • Shane says

      Feb 15, 2014 at 10:34 am

      I guess romantic love is anti-Islamic. Muhammad was a womanizer and Muslim men are encouraged to emulate him.

  2. fair_dinkum says

    Feb 14, 2014 at 10:21 am

    and if we banned moslems from celebrating valentines day, theyd do it in protest.

    its funny how we can love, and they can only hate. why expend the energy on protesting such an innocuous thing?

    this is the type of thing that makes me laugh at them every time. the over the top over reactions to .. nothing. in essence, its all over nothing.

    so have fun you moslems, shout and foam at the mouth, tear your hair out, collapse and scream.. over nothing. and i’ll laugh at you all.

    oh, and dont forget to burn a flag or 2. enjoy.

    • Gail duituturaga says

      Feb 15, 2014 at 10:29 pm

      Oz, 100%.

  3. Jay Boo says

    Feb 14, 2014 at 10:39 am

    Green revolution turned red
    Red tulips grow as promised
    Islam’s gift for all their dead

    Muslims are just too romantic

  4. Jeanne Kelly says

    Feb 14, 2014 at 10:47 am

    As long as it winds up the enemy,

    It’s Friday, somewhere near a mosque, blast out Frank Sinatra singing

    “My Funny Valentine”

  5. Defcon 4 says

    Feb 14, 2014 at 12:16 pm

    I’d rather live under the “Soviet boot” than the psychopathic, Jew hating insanity of islam. I’d rather live in a country ran by reason than the rantings of a mendacious, child molesting, mass murdering, Jew hating psychopath.

  6. gravenimage says

    Feb 14, 2014 at 6:50 pm

    Saudi Arabia: Religious police ban Valentine’s Day

    Yet there are all sorts of people in Saudi Arabia who take this occasion to express their love for one another, thereby showing that the human heart and the human soul cannot ultimately be contained by a restrictive and repressive ideology that declares so much of ordinary human affection and interaction out of bounds and sinful.
    ………………………………………

    Any expressions of love in the Muslim world are *in spite* of Islam, and not because of it.

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