Celebrating Love is… Forbidden??

According to the MUI (The Indonesian Council of Islamic Scholars), Valentine is forbidden...

Valentine’s Day is coming soon! Time to celebrate love. To me, the meaning of Valentine is fading away.. Valentine’s Day.. these days, is only big on the commercial side. You HAVE to buy chocolates, you HAVE to buy flowers, etc. If you don’t, your partner will be disappointed just because he/she didn’t get spoiled on Valentine’s Day. In my opinion, if you have a ‘partner’, Valentine can be celebrated any day… we should be able to celebrate love anytime.

However, MUI (or the Indonesian Council of Islamic Scholars) stated that Valentine is forbidden to be celebrated by Muslims. They said that Valentine is inappropriate, and it will encourage teenagers to form relationships outside marriage. I think they misinterpreted Valentine, but I wouldn’t blame them either. Generally, the Indonesian public sees Valentine as a day that you spend with your partner/girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse (this is where the worries of pre-marital relationships start). Nevertheless, Valentine is actually much deeper than that. Valentine is a day that you can spend with your parents, your best friends, your siblings… because love shouldn’t just exist between you and your partner… love should also exist between you and your friends and family members.

If Valentine is “forbidden”, I’d have to disagree, because – what’s wrong with celebrating the wonders of love? Why can’t they just say killing in the name of God.. forbidden? I think that is much more forbidden than love, am I right or am I right? From my point of view… to say that Valentine is forbidden.. is a bit… rough.

Alexia.