Yes, this is cultural decadence to fear and outlaw. Big time.
[Actually, it does look a little something like the dress that won last week's episode of 'Project Runway']:
But that's a cultural rant for another day.
The women in Saudi Arabia can't drive, can't vote, and have to dress for blizzard conditions. Nobody is allowed to drink alcohol or eat pork. Christians are still 'swine' and Jews 'apes' in Saudi schools' textbooks, and now Saudi Arabia's religious police have banned pet (cat and dog) sales.
How exactly are things changing for the better, becoming more democratic, in the Middle East?:
Saudi Arabia's religious police - who routinely admonish women to cover themselves and men to attend mosque prayers - have issued a decree banning the sale of cats and dogs.
The prohibition on dogs isn't too surprising, since conservative Muslims consider dogs unclean.
But even though cats and dogs are often seen as a sign of Western affluence, Islamic tradition holds that the Prophet Muhammad loved cats.
The police known as the Muttawa are afforded wide leeway to enforce any rules they deem necessary to uphold the social order.
A memo to government officials says they imposed their newest restrictions on the Red Sea port city of Jiddah and the holy city of Mecca because young people have been buying the pets and "parading them in public."
I'm developing a theory that the Saudi Royal family supports this latest Muttawa ban on advice from Bush-Cheney. "Keep your people afraid of dogs because it's a good torture tool."
According to Bob Woodward, when Bush decided to take the U.S. to war and attack Iraq, he called to inform Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Turki Al Faisal before he even informed Colin Powell, his Secretary of State.
The Saudi Embassy in the U.S. (and their diplomats) is the only foreign embassy that is protected by U.S. Secret Service (paid for with American taxpayer dollars).
Why don't we just kill two birds with one stone?
Let's send Paris Hilton (and her little dog, too) over to Saudi Arabia, and just watch them stroke out.
Filed under: How are we safer since 9/11?, Saudi Arabia, Bob Woodward, Secret Service, Muttawa, Paris Hilton, Project Runway, dog and cat ban, culture
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