Friday, August 1, 2008

Saudi Arabia Bans Sale of Dogs and Cats in Capital in Effort to Keep Sexes Apart

No not the dogs and cats...people. The mingling of men and women is a bad thing and after getting reports that "flirtatious young men [were]luring girls with their pets in malls" the mullahs came up with this solution.

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.

In Islamic tradition, dogs are shunned as unclean and dangerous.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 around with him and took care of it.

A number of hadiths — traditional stories of the prophet — show Muhammad encouraging people to treat cats well. Once, he let a cat drink from the water that he was going to use for his ablutions before prayers. Another time, Muhammad said a woman who kept a cat locked up without feeding it would go to Hell.

I guess this really is the end of times.

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