Pakistan bans public "festivals of love" and Valentines

[ShivaFan]

You can't make this up folks. Pakistan's courts have banned public celebrations of Valentine's Day in the capital Islamabad because it is not Islamic and too sexy to show love affection to a girl or your wife or mother with hearts and other "Western corruptions". No one is saying Valentines should be a public holiday, but it is not the government's business if someone wants to celebrate Valentines or whatever. I suppose a homosexual male giving a box of candy with a heart on it to another male deserves the death penalty according to this court. Maybe Pakistan should be added to the list of the other six countries?

No "public festivals of love" in Islamabad!
Give a box of Sees Candy to your wife - GO TO JAIL! Big black X through that Heart!

Link:

Valentine's Day gets chilly reception in parts of Asia | Daily Mail Online

 

[Sunstone]

Pakistan is not alone. As I recall, a few years ago, there were riots in India when certain conservative groups attacked card shops selling valentines. Saudi Arabia has also had issues in the past with Valentine's day, and still might.

The truth is, romantic love -- which Valentine's Day celebrates -- is terribly subversive, and these groups and countries are merely recognizing that fact. It is capable of crossing all human boundaries, and thus undermining the traditional distinctions between people that keep them in their "proper" place in society. Romantic love is capable of crossing -- and thus subverting -- caste boundaries, class boundaries, wealth boundaries, political boundaries, national boundaries, ethnic boundaries, age boundaries, religious boundaries, and so on.

Why, if people start marrying for romantic love, there will be no stopping one caste marrying another, one class marrying another class, rich marrying poor, etc. Imagine the horrors of it! People won't know their place!

When romantic love was introduced into the West in the 1200s AD, it was opposed by the Catholic Church for the same reason that it is opposed in parts of Asia today. It's just too unruly, too subversive, to be any good for maintaining the social order.

 

[Debater Slayer]

I wasn't surprised when I read that Valentine's Day had a negative reception in Pakistan. It is viewed as un-Islamic by many Muslims, not just in Pakistan. I know some people who mock men celebrating it as "unmanly" and women who do so as "immodest," for instance.

I think this is just another item on the list of indications that much of the Muslim world is in dire need of religious and cultural reform. It seems to me that it's time for more and more people to drop cultural relativism and start vocally condemning cultures like Pakistan's for transgressions on freedoms, like this ban.

 

[YmirGF]

I wasn't surprised when I read that Valentine's Day had a negative reception in Pakistan. It is viewed as un-Islamic by many Muslims, not just in Pakistan. I know some people who mock men celebrating it as "unmanly" and women who do so as "immodest," for instance.

I think this is just another item on the list of indications that much of the Muslim world is in dire need of religious and cultural reform. It seems to me that it's time for more and more people to drop cultural relativism and start vocally condemning cultures like Pakistan's for transgressions on freedoms, like this ban.

Indeed. Such loving societies... heaven forbid anyone have any fun.

 

[Augustus]

Good call imo. Public safety must be paramount in the decisions of governments.

Valentines Day causes promiscuity, and it has been scientifically proven that promiscuous women are a leading cause of earthquakes.

Hopefully they will ban all forms of gayness next as this causes floods.

Hats off to to the Pakistanis for proving that at least some politicians still care about the citizens rather than their own narrow agendas

 

[BSM1]

You can't make this up folks. Pakistan's courts have banned public celebrations of Valentine's Day in the capital Islamabad because it is not Islamic and too sexy to show love affection to a girl or your wife or mother with hearts and other "Western corruptions". No one is saying Valentines should be a public holiday, but it is not the government's business if someone wants to celebrate Valentines or whatever. I suppose a homosexual male giving a box of candy with a heart on it to another male deserves the death penalty according to this court. Maybe Pakistan should be added to the list of the other six countries?

No "public festivals of love" in Islamabad!
Give a box of Sees Candy to your wife - GO TO JAIL! Big black X through that Heart!

Link:

Valentine's Day gets chilly reception in parts of Asia | Daily Mail Online

Well I guess 'National Nudity Day' is completely out of the question!

 

[Augustus]

Well I guess 'National Nudity Day' is completely out of the question!

That obviously causes plagues of locusts so a sensible regime like that of Pakistan will be taking absolutely no chances.

You mark my words, because they are taking such a firm line on issues of public morality nothing bad will now happen in Pakistan over the next 12 months.

 

[Stevicus]

I'm actually more surprised that they had Valentine's Day at all, that they now feel the need to ban it.

I always thought Valentine's Day was pretty commercialized, and it's gotten even more so in recent decades.

Only 314 more shopping days until Christmas.

 

[Kemosloby]

They're trying to preserve their national identity. Why should they celebrate a Catholic "saint"?

 

[Quintessence]

As someone who strongly dislikes that so-called holiday, I can't say I'll shed any tears.

 

[Kemosloby]

But then why is it protested in the language of infidelic English?

So the pope can read it?

 

[Kemosloby]

There are more than 3 mio christians left in Pakistan to be discriminated .

When in Rome...

 

[ShivaFan]

Hindu-nationalist Shiv Sena party dropped its previous opposition to Valentine's Day and now says “we are neutral”, and do you know why?

Because of two reasons, (1) after two of its activists had in the past beaten up a couple spending the day together, and (2) the MUMBAI GANESH VISARJAN Festival where Ganesha is celebrated with huge images of Ganesha paraded in the streets among huge crowds and where there are many special events as part of public venues in celebration of Ganesha Festival which often includes Bollywood stars and pop singers doing live performances singing and dancing and which pulls in a lot of revenues for the promoters and where many have commercialized things selling cards and gifts, etc., the same Islamic clerics declared a ban on Ganesh Visarjan in Islamabad.

… so they realized, a ban on one in the name of Islam soon is a ban on you in the name of Islam.

As far as commercialization, it doesn’t matter if you like to give cards or candy etc. on Valentines Day, no one is saying it needs to be a national holiday and for that matter it is not a public holiday even in the USA, any government or theocracy does not have the right to tell others what they want to celebrate by cards or candy of affections et all. Yes, we also see commercialization – but that is because it is popular among the people. And actually, I do not see Valentines as that commercialized other than a good day for flower and candy companies. Certainly the Ganesh Festival in India is much more commercialized than Valentines. And actually Valentines is really not about “Christianity” either, it goes back to the Pagan days, pre-Christian. All Pakistani Islamic extremists are doing is embarrassing themselves to the entire world and exposing how crazed they are.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

They're trying to preserve their national identity. Why should they celebrate a Catholic "saint"?

which Catholic saint... there are three contenders?

Would you ban something simply because it is attributed to a catholic Myth. or any other myth come to that.?

 

[YmirGF]

As someone who strongly dislikes that so-called holiday, I can't say I'll shed any tears.

Well aren't you the cantankerous little love muffin.

 

[Kemosloby]

which Catholic saint... there are three contenders?

Would you ban something simply because it is attributed to a catholic Myth. or any other myth come to that.?

"saint" Valentines? Who can compete with boxes full of chocolate? I would ban it since it threatens their way of life, luring their children into the unmarked van of apostasy with boxes of chocolate covered cherries.

 

[Akivah]

Here is what the website Askmoses.com has to say about Valentine's Day:

Valentine's Day is a unique concept in Halachah.(1) Unlike Thanksgiving, for example, it definitely has Pagan/Christian origins. However, unlike Halloween for example, its observances are very rational even from a secular perspective. (In contrast to a scary face carved into a pumpkin, a box of chocolates is very understandable).(2)

It is therefore the opinion of many Halachic authorities that Valentine's day no longer has any (sufficient) connection to its idolatrous roots. Secular societies simply have a Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Lover's Day. Thus if one wishes to approach this holiday in its standard manner, which is completely rational and secular, there is no Halachic prohibition in observing Valentine's day.3

Many, however, refrain from celebrating their love on a day that was originally designated because of idolatrous reasons, and prefer to distance themselves from holidays that have "shady" origins.

Footnotes
1. Askmoses.com only offers general Jewish information, and not does issue Halachic rulings. This article is merely a general overview; it is not a Halachic permission or prohibition.
2. In other words: the practices of Halloween are clearly indicative of a Pagan/Religious origin, whereas the practices of Valentine's Day do not indicate that there ever was something religious about this.
3. This is based on the Rama in Yoreh Deah 178:1 and a responsa from Rabbi Moshe Feinstein with regard to celebrating January 1st as New Years (Iggerot Moshe, Even Haezer 2:13).

 

[Theweirdtophat]

And people will still think Islam has something to do with it. This is a corrupt government anyway, whether they were Islamic or not. It's nobody's business on what they can celebrate. No one should care.

 

[David1967]

You can't make this up folks. Pakistan's courts have banned public celebrations of Valentine's Day in the capital Islamabad because it is not Islamic and too sexy to show love affection to a girl or your wife or mother with hearts and other "Western corruptions". No one is saying Valentines should be a public holiday, but it is not the government's business if someone wants to celebrate Valentines or whatever. I suppose a homosexual male giving a box of candy with a heart on it to another male deserves the death penalty according to this court. Maybe Pakistan should be added to the list of the other six countries?

No "public festivals of love" in Islamabad!
Give a box of Sees Candy to your wife - GO TO JAIL! Big black X through that Heart!

Link:

Valentine's Day gets chilly reception in parts of Asia | Daily Mail Online

Surely they could find something a little more productive to do.

 

[David1967]

Well I guess 'National Nudity Day' is completely out of the question!

Maybe not "completely out of the question", but you gotta admit ,it should be selective.