Not a fan of Valentine’s Day? Neither is Pakistan

As far as holidays go, Valentine’s Day seems innocuous enough. But for some Muslim groups, it’s a lot more sinister than hearts and flowers.

In Pakistan, for example, the Electronic Media Regulatory Authority wrote a letter this week requiring television and radio stations to censor content related to the holiday, deeming it "not in conformity to our religious and cultural ethos."

Tanzeem-e-Islami, an Islamist organization in the country, took censorship efforts one step further, urging the government to block cell phone service in order to prevent "moral terrorism"– otherwise known as the swapping of sappy V-Day sentiments. The same group also plastered Karachi with anti-Valentine’s billboards (that look suspiciously Valentine’s-y) with warnings to citizens like, "Say No to Valentine’s Day" (another billboard posted on Twitter declared, "Sorry Valentine’s Day, I am ‘Muslim‘").

It’s no surprise, of course, that conservative, Islamic clerics aren’t enamored with this unapologetically consumerist, Western holiday named for a saint and and centered around romance. For many, the holiday seamlessly intertwines anti-Western sentiment with the threat of loosening moral values. The spokesman for the Pakistani Islamist organization Jamaat-e-Islami said as much this week:

This is imposing Western values and cultures on an Islamic society…. Look at the West — people love their dogs but throw their parents out when they get old. We don’t want to be like that.

Pakistan isn’t the first Muslim country to wage a war against Valentine’s Day. In Indonesia this year, protesters took to the streets with signs reading, "Valentine, Infidel Culture" and, "Are you Muslim? Don’t follow Valentine Day." As we noted last year, countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Malaysia, and Uzbekistan don’t feel the love this time of year either. And hey, at least Pakistan didn’t mark the holiday by banning the color red.