Riyadh: Since the beginning of this month, mosque imams across Saudi Arabia used their Friday sermons to aggressively attack those who call for or celebrate Valentine's Day.
Celebrating Valentine's Day is banned in Saudi Arabia as it is regarded as celebrating the life of a Christian saint.
For the past few days the Saudi religious police launched a nationwide crackdown on stores selling items that are red or in any other way allude to the banned celebrations of Valentine's Day.
The crackdown reached its climax on Monday, February 14, when squads of the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of vice (DPVPV), known in the Western media as religious police or mutawaa in Saudi Arabia, began store to store search looking for items that are red or any products suspicious of being sold for Valentine.
There is fatwa, or religious ruling, from Saudi Islamic scholars stating that Muslims have only two annual occasions to celebrate; the feast days of Eid al Adha and Eid al Fitr and that marking any other days is considered as violating the Islamic teachings.
It is not only the religious police who are campaigning against any celebration of Valentine's Day in Saudi Arabia. Saudi local media reported that the Ministry of Education has sent this week's memos to schools and education departments Kingdom wide.
The memos asked schools principals and teachers to remind students of heresy of celebrating Valentine's Day.
A Syrian, who works in a rose selling store in Riyadh and who introduced himself only as Mufeed told Gulf News they often coordinate with their known customers' days before Valentine's Day.
"We often deliver to them red roses and other gifts after arrangements by mobile phones," he said, adding that the religious police are forcing them to follow such practice. "They treat us like drug traffickers," he noted.
When asked him about the prices, he said, for a red rose which often sold for SR 5 on other days of the year, we use to charge SR 25. He added that all other items like teddy bear can fetch SR 100 or even SR 200 depending upon the size of the gift.
On other days the prices of such items would not exceed SR 30 or SR 50, he noted. He said even the prices of chocolate increased in the Kingdom on Valentine. Some shop owners accused others of profiting from a black market of red roses.
Saudi youngsters strongly denying that their celebration of Valentine's Day is a kind of support or loyalty for non-Muslims.
Ahmed Atta Allah, a student, said for him Valentine's Day is an occasion to meet and have fun with friends. He said he doesn't know much about the history of this day and why it is being marked.
