Commenter Peter J. Hertz has missed the point

Submitted by Adam Greaves (United Arab Emirates), Feb 17, 2004 at 23:34

Peter,

Your comment "as long as they respect my right to stick to mine" is precisely the issue here. In Saudi Arabia, Christians are not allowed to celebrate Valentine's Day, so there is no respect there. Even a Saudi who might just want to buy some red roses for home is not allowed to buy them on 14th February. The flower shops are raided and legally bought merchandise is confiscated.

So yes, I agree with you that Muslims should be allowed to observe their religion, but the whole point of Daniel Pipes' article was precisely that Muslims are not showing that same respect.

Interestingly, when I lived in Jeddah I mentioned to a Saudi colleague on Valentine's Day that red roses had been banned. He was a fairly easy going and sincere type of man, and he simply didn't believe that such nonsense would occur in his country, so I challenged him to go and buy red roses for his wife. The next day he came to the office shocked, and had to admit that I was right.

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