The Onion, as if reading Mere Rhetoric, is much amused by Islamist hatred of all things affectionate:
A new videotape of Osama bin Laden broadcast on the Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera Monday beseeched Allah to grant all Americans a “crappy Valentine’s Day.”
One problem. Not funny any more:
Saudi Arabia’s morality police are on the scent of illicit red roses as part of a clampdown on would-be St Valentine’s lovers in the strict Muslim kingdom… Florists say the move is part of an annual campaign by the committee – whose members are known as “mutawwaeen” or volunteers – to prevent Saudis marking a festival they believe flouts their austere doctrine of “Wahhabi” Islam.
Again, I don’t want to slip into hyperbole – but they’re genuinely afraid that emotions will disrupt the numbing, grinding routine of mindless ritual necessary to keep the entire population yoked to the chain of fanatical Islam.
