If this measure goes through, it is time for those of us in the West to quit giving a damn about Muslim sensibilities and their easily hurt feelings.

The letter "X" soon may be banned in Saudi Arabia because it resembles the mother of all banned religious symbols in the oil kingdom: the cross.

The new development came with the issuing of another mind-bending fatwa, or religious edict, by the infamous Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice — the group of senior Islamic clergy that reigns supreme on all legal, civil, and governance matters in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The commission's damning of the letter "X" came in response to a Ministry of Trade query about whether it should grant trademark protection to a Saudi businessman for a new service carrying the English name "Explorer."

"No! Nein! Nyet!" was the commission's categorical answer.

Why?

Well, never mind that none of the so-called scholars manning the upper ranks of the religious outfit can speak or read a word of English. But their experts who examined the English word "explorer" were struck by how suspicious that "X" appeared. In a kingdom where Friday preachers routinely refer to Christians as pigs and infidel crusaders, even a twisted cross ranks as an abomination.

Let's see -- in the last several years we have had ice cream treats and basketball shoes pulled from the market because there was some vague resemblance between a design and some holy Muslim phrase. Out in California, a College republican group faces sanctions for abusing a Hamas flag because, unbeknownst to them, it contains the name of Allah. What next -- ill the right of those who follow the false prophet Mohammad to be free from offense require that the Western world drop the letter X (and, one would presume, T as well) because of their similarity to a Christian religious symbol?

Read the article for some of the other wonderful things this organization does in the name of Islam:

* declaring the world flat and immobile -- in 1974.
* forbidding the construction of churches in Saudi Arabia for 8 million guest workers -- and forbidding them to worship at all, in public or in private.
*forbidding women to work as sales clerks -- in stores that cater exclusively to women.
* restricting travel by women within the country or abroad.

Yep -- love those Wahabbis! And to think that their Saudi patrons are spreading their version of Islam around the world (including in this country) as the normative version of the faith.

Posted by: Greg at 04:50 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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