Saudi Arabia bans all things red in run-up to V-Day - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Saudi Arabia's religious police is up in arms this Valentine's Day and will be cracking down on stores selling red roses, heart-shaped products or red gift wraps. According to the Saudi Gazette, Valentine's Day merchandise is considered contraband because observing Western holidays is prohibited in Saudi Arabia. "As Muslims, we shouldn't celebrate a non-Muslim celebration, especially this one that encourages immoral relations between unmarried men and women," the New York Daily News quoted Sheikh Khaled Al-Dossari, a scholar in Islamic studies, as saying. Religious cops from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice patrol shops, confiscate symbols of love, and destroy them. Their warnings in ads placed in newspapers states: "Those who don't comply will be punished." Many Saudis work to get around the party poopers, and as the crackdown only goes into full swing the week of Valentine's Day, they buy their red-themed gifts in advance or stealthily get flowers from the black market. "I think what they are doing is ridiculous," the writer of a local blog called Saudi Jeans said. "What the conservatives in this country need to learn is something called 'tolerance'," the writer added.