I reported before on the efforts of Hindu nationalists to suppress any celebrations of Valentine's Day in India - but in Saudi Arabia, such suppression is official government policy rather than simply the ravings of a bunch of fringe fundamentalists. Anyone in the Saudi kingdom who tries to do something special for Valentine's Day is risking a lot of trouble.

Arab News reports:

"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," an edict issued by the Fatwa Committee said. "There are only two holidays in Islam - Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha - and any other holidays, whether to celebrate an individual, group or event, are inventions which Muslims are banned from," said the committee, headed by Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh.

"A Muslim is prohibited from celebrating, approving or congratulating on this occasion," said the ruling issued by the Fatwa Committee. Supporting others to celebrate the day such as buying or selling Valentine's items, presenting gifts or making festival food falls in the category of approval. "You should also enlighten Saudi citizens on the danger of this custom, which is alien to our society, and make them aware of its negative effect," Al-Madinah daily quoted the religious police chief [Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Ghaith, president of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice] as saying.

If people like this were the only available source on Islam, I am suspect that almost no one would ever convert to that religion. Comments like the above make Islam seem dreary, depressing, and oppressive in the extreme. If that were Islam, why would anyone in their right mind actually want to be a Muslim?

Arab News quotes one young person in Qasim as saying "Our religion is very clear in this matter. We only celebrate two occasions every year at the end of Ramadan and during pilgrimage. Anyone who adopts another culture is very weak and misguided." I wonder what he would say about Muslims around the world whose culture is different from his?

This suggests an attitude which says "I don't have a 'Saudi' culture, my only culture is Islam. Nothing else is valid for a Muslim." This would be consistent with the Saudi government's huge investment into promoting Wahhabi Islam around the world - an Islam which is much more fanatical and fundamentalist than the forms of Islam otherwise practiced.

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