{"id":1728,"date":"2003-02-14T02:08:34","date_gmt":"2003-02-14T07:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?p=1728"},"modified":"2003-02-14T02:08:34","modified_gmt":"2003-02-14T07:08:34","slug":"muslims_have_a_love_hate_relationship_with_valentines_day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2003\/02\/muslims_have_a_love_hate_relationship_with_valentines_day\/","title":{"rendered":": Muslims Have A Love&#045;Hate Relationship With Valentine&#8217;s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">\n<tr>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/muslim_valentine.jpg\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"right\">\n<div class=\"caption\"><\/div>\n<p><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>Even as the United States prepares a little <a href=\"http:\/\/www.collegian.com%2Fvnews%2Fdisplay.v%2FART%2F2003%2F02%2F13%2F3e4ad9af460a4\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Valentine<\/a> of its own for Iraq, much of the Muslim world has taken to this mysterious holiday.  Despite clerical rulings against \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/216.239.33.100%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dcache%3Ay6zBEyC-DS0C%3Awww.gulf-times.com%2F2001%2F02%2F19%2Fislam.htm%2Bislam%2Bvalentine%26hl%3Den%26ie%3DUTF-8\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Eid al-Habb<\/a>\u201c, stores are filled with red roses, cards and the like.  Islam has always looked <a href=\"http:\/\/www.islamfortoday.com%2Fruqaiyyah03.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">positively<\/a> on love and sexuality, seeing it as an important aspect of humanity to be celebrated (within marraige, of course).  Muslims even have their own version of the Kama Sutra: \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sacred-texts.com%2Fsex%2Fgarden%2Fintro.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Perfumed Garden<\/a>,\u201d a classic medieval text by Sheikh Nefzaoui (Younger readers of alt.muslim should probably avoid that last link).  But the uniquely <a href=\"http:\/\/www.historychannel.com%2Fexhibits%2Fvalentine%2Fhistory.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Western heritage<\/a> of today\u2019s holiday has some Muslims shooting arrows of a different kind.  \u201cThis is a shameful day,\u201d said Khalid Waqas Chamkani, a Pakistani student leader working to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com%2Fnews%2F181_156765%2C000900010002.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">stop Pakistani shops<\/a> from selling Valentine\u2019s Day-related items.  \u201cThe people in the West are just fulfilling and satisfying their sex thirst.\u201d  Despite these protests, Valentine\u2019s Day cards are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com%2Fnews%2F181_156765%2C000900010002.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">selling like hotcakes<\/a> is Muslim areas like Kashmir and Qatar.  One Valentine\u2019s Day card that everyone can unite in opposing, is the practical joke <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepittsburghchannel.com%2Fnews%2F1967588%2Fdetail.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">jihad valentine<\/a> that someone planted in a Pennsylvania Target store.  Can\u2019t you just feel the love?<\/p>\n<p><i><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.\n<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite official frowning by Muslim scholars, the western holiday of Valentine&#8217;s Day is catching on in Muslim lands &#8211; but not without controversy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":530,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-briefings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>: Muslims Have A Love&#045;Hate Relationship With Valentine&#8217;s Day<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Despite official frowning by Muslim scholars, the western holiday of Valentine&#039;s Day is catching on in Muslim lands - but not without controversy.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2003\/02\/muslims_have_a_love_hate_relationship_with_valentines_day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\": Muslims Have A Love&#045;Hate Relationship With Valentine&#8217;s Day\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Despite official frowning by Muslim scholars, the western holiday of Valentine&#039;s Day is catching on in Muslim lands - but not without controversy.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2003\/02\/muslims_have_a_love_hate_relationship_with_valentines_day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"altmuslim\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2003-02-14T07:08:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/muslim_valentine.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shahed Amanullah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shahed Amanullah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2003\/02\/muslims_have_a_love_hate_relationship_with_valentines_day\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2003\/02\/muslims_have_a_love_hate_relationship_with_valentines_day\/\",\"name\":\": Muslims Have A Love&#045;Hate Relationship With Valentine&#8217;s Day\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2003-02-14T07:08:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2003-02-14T07:08:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/0e0efbb645cc461c721083358f82f945\"},\"description\":\"Despite official frowning by Muslim scholars, the western holiday of Valentine's Day is catching on in Muslim lands - but not without controversy.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2003\/02\/muslims_have_a_love_hate_relationship_with_valentines_day\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2003\/02\/muslims_have_a_love_hate_relationship_with_valentines_day\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2003\/02\/muslims_have_a_love_hate_relationship_with_valentines_day\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\": Muslims Have A Love&#045;Hate Relationship With Valentine&#8217;s Day\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\",\"name\":\"altmuslim\",\"description\":\"Global perspectives on Muslim life, politics &amp; 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