Saudi Arabia has banned celebration of Valentine’s Day.
But I’m not going to scream “Intolerance!”
I like exploring the less-favored side of a debate.
It’s sensible of them if their beliefs are that think pre-marital (i.e. sexual) relationships are bad; V-day is a silly commercialization scam. Chocolate, wrapped in red or pink packaging, is overpriced and not very good. There are Christian denominations whose doctrine is similar. Many Jews don’t celebrate Christmas or Kwanzaa because it’s not in their religion, and Christians do not celebrate Passover or Hanukkah.
As I see it, this is a similar situation.
As the article says, Valentine’s Day is named after a Christian martyred saint, and a minor one at that. It makes no sense for Muslims to celebrate it if they don’t want to. Do Christians have a Thor Day? An Atlas Day? Of course not.
Why do people anywhere in the world need an official day on the calendar to acknowledge their affection? It’s ridiculous because it just kills trees, and isolates people who aren’t already in relationships.
Banning V-day in a Muslim country is the same as Christians not celebrating Passover (except that I’m guessing Christians in most countries won’t get killed for attending a seder). They ought to have the right to choose, but buying overpriced chocolates has nothing…bupkis, to do with a martyred Christian saint – so I can see why the holiday is irrelevant in Islam.
Maybe Christians and Jews should observe Ramadan (though Judaism does have fasts of its own, and Christianity – at least some denominations of it – have Lent, which if I remember correctly entails a week of giving up something. Not quite the full-blown fast, but it’s the same idea). IMO, Ramadan is most impressive. Judaism forbids engaging in the fasting if you are not physically fit to undertake it.
The article sleazily linking up the different things (in the URL: banning of Valentine’s Day along with a reference to the prohibition of women drivers) that Saudi Arabia bans, to me, is an underhanded way of trying to make the incorrect point that Islam is intolerant. Which it isn’t. It is intolerant people who have twisted the words in the Quran to suit their own ends.
There are also intolerant Jews who think that Palestinians don’t belong in Israel.
It’s not religion that is intolerant, but the people who use it as justification for bigotry and hatred: they fall back on the argument from authority that “God says so” – who’s going to argue with that?
I will.
Religion cannot exist without humanity.
Intolerance is a condition of humanity, not of religion.
