...born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad

Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Pooches: Oh, those wacky Wahhabis. Now they’re trying to clamp down on the sharia-flouting practice of using adorable canines to troll for chicks (the killjoys). From the Toronto Star (although it does read like something from the Onion):

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia–Every single man knows that walking a dog in the park is a sure babe magnet.

Saudi Arabia's Islamic religious police, in their zeal to keep the sexes apart, want to make sure the technique doesn't catch on here.

The solution: Ban selling dogs and cats as pets, as well as walking them in public.

The prohibition went into effect this week in the capital, Riyadh, and authorities in the city say they will strictly enforce it – unlike previous bans in the cities of Mecca and Jiddah, which have been ignored and failed to stop pet sales.

Violators found outside with their pets will have their beloved poodles and other furry companions confiscated by agents of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the official name of the religious police, tasked with enforcing Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic code.

The commission's general manager, Othman al-Othman, said the ban was ordered because of what he called "the rising of phenomenon of men using cats and dogs to make passes at women and pester families" and "violating proper behaviour in public squares and malls."

"If a man is caught with a pet, the pet will be immediately confiscated and the man will be forced to sign a document pledging not to repeat the act," al-Othman told the Al-Hayat newspaper.

"If he does, he will be referred to authorities." The ban does not address women.

So far, the prohibition did not appear to have any effect in Riyadh.

It's extremely rare, anyway, to see anyone in the capital walking a dog – much less carrying a cat in public – despite the authorities' claims of flirtatious young men luring girls with their pets in malls.

Sales clerck at a couple of Riyadh pet stores said yesterday they received no orders from the commission banning the sale of pets.

Cats and dogs were still on display.

The religious police prowl streets and malls throughout the kingdom, ensuring unmarried men and women do not mix, confronting women they feel are not properly covered or urging men to go to prayers.

They also often make attempts to plug the few holes in the strict gender segregation that innovations bring.

In 2004, for example, they tried to ban cameras on cell phones, fearing that men and women would exchange pictures of each other – though the prohibition was quickly revoked.

The prohibition may be more of an attempt to curb the owning of pets, which conservative Saudis view as a sign of a corrupting Western influence, like the fast food, shorts, jeans and pop music that have become more common in the kingdom.

Although it has never been common to own pets in the Arab world, it's becoming increasingly fashionable among the upper class in Saudi Arabia and other countries such as Egypt.

In Islamic tradition, dogs are shunned as unclean and dangerous, though they are kept for hunting and guarding.

In large cities around the Middle East, stray dogs are considered pests.

The ban on cats is more puzzling, since there's no similar disdain for them in Islamic tradition.

One of the Prophet Muhammad's closest companions was given the name Abu Huraira, Arabic for "the father of the kitten," because he always carried a kitten with him and a number of traditional stories of the prophet show Muhammad encouraging people to treat cats well.

“The father of the kitten”?  And what about the Prophet Muhammad's other companion, “the uncle of the bunny”?

Well, they do say it’s a warm ‘n’ fuzzy religion.

Posted by: scaramouche at 11:27 | link | comments (1)

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