In Saudi Arabia, this Sunday is Valen-ban Day.
Religious cops from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice are cracking down on stores selling red roses, heart-shaped products or red gift wraps, confiscating all symbols of love, and destroying them.
“Those who don’t comply will be punished,” they warned in ads placed in newspapers.
“As Muslims, we shouldn’t celebrate a non-Muslim celebration, especially this one that encourages immoral relations between unmarried men and women,” Sheikh Khaled Al-Dossari, a scholar in Islamic studies, told the Saudi Gazette.
“I think what they are doing is ridiculous,” said the writer of a local blog called Saudi Jeans. “What the conservatives in this country need to learn is something called ‘tolerance.’” NY daily news