Hardly a Hallmark moment
As a Valentine’s Day card smoldered, more than 100 members of the Hindu extremist group Shiv Sena chanted “Death to Valentine’s Day” and “People who celebrate Valentine’s Day should be pelted with shoes!”
Valentine’s Day has in the past two decades made strong inroads in India as the country has slowly opened itself up to the outside world _ its economic boom bringing in not just foreign investment but also aspects of Western culture virtually unknown here a quarter century ago.
It’s a state of affairs that enrages Hindu and Muslim hard-liners, who on Wednesday vented just as they do every Valentine’s Day _ burning cards, holding rallies and even threatening to beat couples caught canoodling in public, a strict no-no for those who claim to defend traditional Indian values.
“This is a conspiracy to misguide the young people of our country,” said Jai Bhagwan Goel, chief of the Shiv Sena’s north India branch.
It was Pope Paul VI who had Valentine’s Day removed from the liturgical calendar. Not surprising, since one of the most persistent tales of the saint says he was beheaded for his anti-war activism.
Wow… Love is such a threatening concept to them that they feel compelled to pelt people with shoes? *shakes his head*
Hopeless.
Why do they make me hate religion so much… Time to go wipe my ass with a (insert ancient religious book here).
Valentine’s Day is just another opportunity to separate men from their money. Bah! Humbug!! The wack jobs have the right idea.
Doesn’t anybody work??
Let’s go protest the changing of the DS Time in the US, might fuck up my welfare check or the time the bar opens.
I know the argument is trite but Geeez!!!
I once suggested (half in jest) that the way round many religious extremists was a diet of Jane Austen novels because they promote the idea of a young woman having a will of her own as opposed to being a patriarchal chattel. I think I may have had something.
Valentines Day has nothing to do with love. It has everything to do with mass consumerism. They are smart to reject western culture. We are infecting the rest of the world with our corrupt values.
#6 – whatever
I reject mass consumerism by not consuming mass quantities.
They reject mass consumerism by burning mass quantities. Islamic extremists are morons. (like all religious extremists).
RE: consumerism of V-Day.
Remember, they either stole the cards or BOUGHT them… if they paid, they’ve already SUPPORTED the ‘holiday’.
J/P=?
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pelted with shoes? oh dear my no!!
I feel like this was an insufficient protest. The could’ve at least made an effigy of St. Valentine and torched him.
#6…..I agree.
#8…Pedro….thats only when caught on tape or video carrying a sign that says…..****behead the infidel cartoonists**** or what the **Moderate** Muslims say when confronted with someone claiming that Islam is a violent religion.
Oh….and Eideard….I didn’t realize Pope PaulVI was a war monger 🙂