If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:2
Drenching
"Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight!
"Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow."
Isaiah 1:11-17
Friends et. al
Worthwhile
The ban is more significant than Westerners might assume — a measure of the strength of the mutawwa’s hold on Saudi citizens. It’s bad enough that Valentine’s Day is a Western holiday, but it also defies Saudi segregation of the sexes. United Press International quotes Saudi Sheikh Khaled Al-Dossari: “As Muslims we shouldn’t celebrate a non-Muslim celebration, especially this one that encourages immoral relations between unmarried men and women.”
Last year, the Weekly Standard saw growing Valentine’s Day lenience as one of the “first faint signs of a movement away from tyranny.” In 2007, the religious militia let non-Muslims celebrate the holiday behind closed doors, a significant concession for officers who barge into foreigners’ homes to enforce alcohol bans. Muslims still slipped around the ban and red roses sold out. This year, BBC says Saudis are buying roses early or on the black market, and florists are delivering bouquets in the middle of the night. Saudis are slipping away to Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates to celebrate.
-World on the Web, on Valentine's Day around the globe
