Monday, February 11, 2008

Saudis Outlaw Love

I guess men in Saudi Arabia can do Valentine's Day on the cheap.
RIYADH, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's religious police have banned red roses ahead of Valentine's Day, forcing couples in the conservative Muslim nation to think of new ways to show their love. The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has ordered florists and gift shop owners in the capital Riyadh to remove any items coloured scarlet, which is widely seen as symbolising love, newspapers said. "They visited us last night," the Saudi Gazette quoted an unidentified florist as saying. It is not unusual for the Saudi vice squad to clamp down ahead of Valentine's Day, which it sees as encouraging relations between men and women outside of wedlock, the newspaper said.

2 comments:

John Burgess said...

I'm sure you'll be amused by this as well, from the BBC:

Militant Hindu Valentine threat

It seems that there are religions that just don't like occasions that bring men and women together.

Lone Ranger said...

People think of Hindus as Ghandi-like people who wouldn't swat a fly, but they can be just as ornery and murderous as radical Muslims. Also, notice that they slipped "right-wing" into that story. Right or left wing has nothing to do with religious fanaticism.