Valentine’s Day has been a part of my life ever since I was a small child, as it probably has been in yours. Even before I started school, I well remember the small candy hearts with things like “I love you” written on them. After I started school, the evening before the big day, (Valentine’s Day) my sisters and brother would sit around the table and cut out hearts and write love notes on them. Scissors, ‘home made paste’ and colored paper were shared. We would be excited to bring our handiwork to school the next day, Valentine’s Day, and hand them out to our classmates. Even in grade school there was love. I remember getting excited and thinking how cute a girl in the first grade was. Secret crushes were something that this shy little boy had always kept to himself. One time I made it known to one of my sisters that I liked a certain girl while in grade school and I never lived it down. After my school days ended at fifteen, I don’t remember any particular valentines event before I met my life long companion. Then and now it is still not a big event but it is a time when we each express our mutual love for each other with some small gift and/ or a short love letter. There was a short article in recent email about Valentine’s Day and the world of Islam that I thought was very interesting. While many of those in the West are celebrating Valentine’s Day with the exchange of expressions of love, roses, chocolate, and candlelight dinners; lovers in Muslim countries must go into hiding to express their affections.
Though Valentine’s Day has Christian roots, honoring a Christian martyr named St. Valentine, over the years its religious connection has become left out, somehow, and it is now considered a secular holiday, celebrated by all who want to express amore (love) to their special someone on this day. However, in much of the Islamic world, Valentine’s Day is not just frowned upon, but it is illegal, sometimes coming with dire consequences for those who ignore the “un-Islamic” nature of this day of love.
Pakistan, for example, outlawed Valentine’s Day in 2017, when Islamabad’s High Court ruled that the holiday goes against Islamic teachings. The ruling came in response to a petition by Abdul Waheed, a Pakistani citizen, who believes that any Valentine’s Day promotions in the mainstream or social media are un-Islamic. His petition further argued that while Valentine’s Day is advocated in the language of love, this is merely a pretext for the promotion of nudity, immorality and indecency. He won his case.” That, to me, was actually a sad commentary on the state of the Islamic world. Is there now a punishment for love and for showing love for one’s wife or even his future wife? Is love always related to promiscuity and sex in their minds? The main problem with the middle eastern countries and the people populating them is the lack of loving humanity. There would be fewer middle eastern wars and Jihadi bombings if there were more love. Valentine’s Day is exactly what they need right now, a day of love and expressed affection that they should celebrate every day until peace comes to their lands. In some Islamic elementary schools they teach little children to hate Americans, and/or opposing Islamic factions. They believe it is honorable to strap a bomb on your body and explode it in a populated area where even one of those people might be. To join groups or organizations whose sole purpose to exist, is to kill anyone or any group with opposing religion and/or political views. The Quran gives them license to do that but it is so contrary to humanity to do so, that it is unbelievable to realize that they are actually doing it. True, St Valentine was a Christian and even though our current Valentine’s Day is no longer considered a Christian holiday it still promulgates the Christian belief in love of mankind, contrary to many views and behaviors coming from places such as the middle east.