Guess who is targeting the holiday this year?
The Salafists in Egypt, flexing their new political muscles, are speaking out against the holiday, which in previous years was accepted by Egyptians. Religious spokesman Abu Hussam al-Bukhaari said:
The celebration of Valentine's is a heresy of heresies that has no basis in Islam. Islam calls for love as comprehensive in its legitimacy clarified by the Messenger of Allah peace be upon him, that the Muslim loves his Muslim brother... Valentine's is a Western tradition. According to the hadeeth: 'Whoever imitates a people is one of them, original and this is what follows the ceremony of evil and forbidden things, such as wasting time playing, singing and unveiling, wanton display, men mixing with women and the emergence of women without their 'mahram,' and so taboo, which are haraam.Egyptians seemed to like the holiday, so we'll see what happens.